SA hospital crisis: Repat must be urgently reopened, unions say
BEDS at the Repatriation General Hospital must be urgently made available to ease the state’s health crisis, health unions say.
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THIRTY extra beds will be made available throughout 12 South Australian hospitals as Health Minister Stephen Wade battles to ease ambulance ramping and overcrowded emergency departments.
But health unions are still gearing up for industrial action after Mr Wade rejected their calls to immediately open beds at the Repatriation General Hospital.
Union leaders said their crisis meeting with Mr Wade and health officials yesterday was productive, but it lacked an agreement on a “circuit breaker” to reduce the pressure on emergency departments.
Mr Wade said reopening beds at the Repat was a “medium to longer-term solution”.
Instead, he aims to move disability and aged-care clients, who are awaiting care placements, out of acute beds and into other hospital beds.
“This will be the first step in a series of initiatives to improve system-wide co-ordination of care pathways and inter-hospital transfers,” he said.
Mr Wade said other potential fixes included boosting capacity for forensic mental health patients, reducing the number of court-ordered hospital stays for prisoners with mental illnesses and introducing transit wards.
Yesterday’s meeting came two days after ramping at metropolitan hospitals reached crisis point. Union bosses were reluctant to comment on the 30 new beds until they had further details.
Ambulance Employees Association boss Phil Palmer said his union would start “gearing up” an industrial action campaign next week.
“Some of the ideas are very good and we think they’ll work if they’re implemented. However, they’re not going to be implemented as quickly as our members would like,” Mr Palmer said.
“What we need is a circuit breaker. If we don’t do something quickly, something in the next couple of days, we’re going to end up with another situation like we’ve had this week – a disaster where our members are tied up on the ramps of all the hospitals.”
Nurses’ union chief Elizabeth Dabars said her union would consider taking industrial action after she met with nurses at the Flinders Medical Centre and Adelaide and Lyell McEwin hospitals.
“People are at breaking point,” she said. “It is unsafe for the community and it’s unsafe for the hardworking and dedicated staff providing care to their patients.”
SA Salaried Medical Officers Association industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said her members were “working in crisis conditions on a 24/7 basis”.