New RAH stickybeakers flood emergency department with minor complaints as ramping worsens
AS the health system faces some of its busiest days ever, officials are appealing to people to stop turning up at the new RAH’s emergency department with minor ailments like sprained ankles and sore throats.
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SOUTH Australia’s hospital emergency departments are dealing with their highest demand in history — fuelled by people with rolled ankles and sore throats clogging the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.
People with minor complaints bypassing their nearest hospital, and bringing in groups of family and friends, are causing ambulance ramping as hospital staff deal with the demand from a 10 per cent surge in walk-ins while also trying to unload ambulances.
Officials today pleaded with the public not to clog hospitals with minor complaints.
All metropolitan hospitals have had demand outstripping capacity in their EDs this week and the $2.3 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital has had ambulances ramping due to rocketing demand.
The ED saw 231 patients on Wednesday and 242 on Thursday, an increase of more than 10 per cent on the average — many of these were walk-ins who did not need emergency care.
However, officials said the triage system where urgent cases get top priority was working well and genuine emergencies were getting premium care in the new hospital.
Network director of emergency services Dr Tom Soulsby said it was “embarrassing” to see someone who had waited in the ED for several hours, only to tell them to go home after an examination showed their complaint was not a genuine emergency.
“We are seeing more walk-ins and more patients who just didn’t need to be here,” he said.
“What the public needs to think is do I need to come to hospital, should I go to my GP?”
He stressed that very sick people are being managed very effectively although — as expected — everything is taking longer as staff get used to the new facility, including the IT network.
SA Health chief executive Vickie Kaminski said there had been more than 1200 ED presentations in metropolitan hospitals on Thursday.
She noted flu presentations have reached 12,000, compared to 10,000 at the same time in the horror year of 2015, but most are not being admitted.
“They are not causing the hospital issues we are seeing, it is just really sick people right across the SA population,” she said.
Ms Kaminski also noted the crush on ED services may be due to people having trouble finding a GP, or not wanting to pay a gap if the GP does not bulk-bill.
She appealed to the public to contact Health Direct on 1800 022 222 to speak to a nurse, or to see a GP for minor health problems, but to call 000 in a genuine emergency.
SA Ambulance Service chief executive Jason Killens said last week was the busiest ever experienced by the service and Wednesday was the busiest day for the service in history apart from the statewide blackout.
“On Wednesday we saw 41 per cent more 000 calls to our emergency operation centre than the same Wednesday last year,” he said. “We are seeing pressure across the state, country areas too for the last few weeks.”
SAAS has started taking low priority cases to GP clinics rather than EDs, with about a dozen patients taken to three clinics on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the RAH continues to deal with what Ms Kaminski called “momentary issues” as staff settle in.
These include the automated “RAHbots” delivery system and also the pharmacy system having problems with the IT system leading to delays in service, some telephone issues, and the discovery of a nonlethal strain of legionella bacteria in 16 taps following a due diligence check — they have since been flushed and cleaned.