Royal Adelaide Hospital full as Covid surge looms

It was a $2.4b building designed to cope with 100 years of Adelaide growth. And now all of its beds are taken.

The $2.4bn Royal Adelaide Hospital is full despite being built to take into account Adelaide’s growth for the rest of this century.

All ward beds at the 800-bed hospital are now described as “open” to deal with winter demand, expecting a double whammy of rising flu and Covid hospital cases – and ahead of a forecast surge in Covid cases.

It comes as federal Health Minister Mark Butler, speaking in Adelaide, raised the prospect of federal support for makeshift hospitals – such as hotels or even warehouses – to take the overflow of low acuity patients should the overall hospital bed crisis escalate.

The RAH is seeing record numbers of patients who have been treated and admitted stuck in the emergency department – some for days – waiting for a ward bed to become available. At one stage this month 63 of the 69 patients in the ED had been treated and were waiting for a bed.

Inquiries by The Advertiser show the hospital – with 700 overnight and 100 day beds – is a full house.

A statement from SA Health says: “The latest data shows 691 overnight beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital are currently activated, with an additional 100 beds for same day use.

“There are currently a further 28 beds in use for patient care across the Acute Assessment Centre, Hospital Transfer Unit and discharge lounge.

“The system flexes up and down in line with demand, and we are currently experiencing unprecedented winter demand due to the combination of flu and Covid-19, and all ward beds at the RAH are open.”

Officials says this critical demand “is not expected to continue in the long term.”

“Our future planning looks to deliver the best possible services to patients and their families, in areas where the need is greatest,” it says.

The hospital’s 700 overnight beds and 100 same-day beds compare with 650 overnight beds and 30 day beds at the old RAH when it closed in September 2017.

Royal Adelaide Hospital. Picture: Matt Loxton

Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler provides a Covid-19 vaccine update in Adelaide. Picture: Morgan Sette

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said: “It’s alarming there are zero beds available at the RAH, weeks before a projected avalanche of Covid cases as well as skyrocketing flu cases.

“Labor promised South Australians a new hospital that would future-proof healthcare but here we are just five years later and the RAH is bursting at the seams.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said many of the issues are due to a lack of investment by the former government.

“We know our public hospitals, including the RAH, are under extraordinary pressure at the moment with rising Covid and flu cases, combined with normal winter ills,” he said.

“While the RAH has 120 more beds than the old RAH, we acknowledge there are not enough beds across our health system – and that’s why the new government is committed to opening 550 more beds in our hospitals.

“The Liberals’ decision to shut down the Covid back-up site at Wakefield Hospital and ECH College Grove is just one example in four years of their neglect, with nearly 200 beds that were set up to manage Covid cases not being used.”

Announcing the fourth Covid jab plan in Adelaide Mr Butler stressed there is “enormous pressure” on hospitals nationally, including a recent jump of 1000 hospital cases to 4000 and intensive care unit numbers soaring 40 per cent in a week.

Asked by The Advertiser if there were contingency plans such as converting hotels to temporary hospitals if numbers worsen, Mr Butler said: “If it gets much worse than where we are right now of course states will be putting in contingency arrangements to ensure the best possible care is provided to their community.

“If they require support from the Commonwealth for that, beyond the agreement we have already extended, then we’re of course open to talking about it.”