Royal Adelaide Hospital safety memo teaches doctors, nurses and staff how to open doors

AS bedlocked patients are daily stuck in the Royal Adelaide Hospital ED waiting for ward beds and others struggle to find anything edible on the menu, bureaucrats are busy telling doctors and nurses how to best open doors.

• RAH Explained: How the new hospital works
• A visitor’s experience: Stop whingeing, the RAH is amazing!
• RAH caterers’ idea of a vegan meal: Two boiled potatoes
• New Royal Adelaide Hospital check-up: Six months on
• Unions predict further RAH cost blowouts

AS DOZENS of patients are daily stuck in the Royal Adelaide Hospital Emergency Department waiting for ward beds — five had been waiting more than 24 hours Monday — bureaucrats are busy telling highly trained doctors and nurses how to open doors.

A new memo from the Central Adelaide Health Service, which runs the RAH, advises staff on the correct way to open a door.

Lunge. Use two hands. And work your legs rather than your arms when opening a door, is the advice sent to staff under the new Marshall Government.

The memo comes as the hospital faces losing accreditation for putting patients at risk unless it meets independent standards by June 3.

At 9am Monday there were five people warehoused in the RAH ED for more than 24 hours due to lack of ward beds and another waiting 12-24 hours.

The directive to staff has mesmerised some who note they have university degrees.

It states: “Staff are reminded to take care when opening doors at the RAH. To help reduce the risk of discomfort when opening doors, consider:

■ Using a lunge position.

■ Using two hands to open the door where possible.

■ Using your legs and body weight to open the door rather than your arms.”

The memo circulated to staff was marked as version 2.1 of the document. Picture: Supplied

The door lore comes as an upset visitor has lifted the lid on another unpalatable patient food experience at the RAH — a vegan meal of two potatoes.

After months of patient complaints about the standard of food being dished out at the $2.3 billion hospital, the sad food pictures and experiences continue to roll in.

Alexia Carvalho, 20, of Mawson Lakes, was visiting her friend Bailey Thompson, 19, during dinner service and was dismayed by the meal that was dished out by the RAH’s food contractor, Spotless.

So offended by the offering, which included two steamed potatoes as the main course, she penned a note exclaiming her dismay with the hope management would see it. Also in the “meal” was a fruit cup, a bread roll and an apple juice.

“Didn’t realise it would be so hard to add some boiled vegetables and steamed rice,” she wrote.

“Nice to know how you guys accommodate for your patients with specific dietary requirements. Thanks.”

Two potatoes, a fruit cup, a bread roll and some apple juice were provided as a vegan meal, one patient claims. They left a note explaining their disappointment. Pictures: Supplied

But for food brought in to the hospital by Mr Thompson’s mum, he would have gone hungry.

“I was so upset (by the meal) ... I was shaking when I wrote it (the note),” Ms Carvalho said.

“I was fuming, he’s in there (the RAH) to recover and food plays a big part in that.

“I reckon I’m going to email the Spotless group, which caters for the hospital, and just be like ‘is this normal?’.

“It felt like it (the meal) was something last minute that had been thrown together.” Mr Thompson, who is in hospital due to fluid on his lungs from fractured ribs, said he had lost 5kg during his eight-day admission.

He had been served up “slop”, including bean stew.

SA Health said there had been no reports of door related injuries but “the advice is in response to some feedback received from staff about the weight of the doors in some clinical areas”.

“We are currently looking into the (food quality) matter and will continue to listen to feedback and work to ensure all meals meet the standards expected by the community.”