SA second worst in the nation for ED wait times – and getting worse

Damning data shows wait times for SA emergency departments are getting worse across almost every category - only one showed a good result.

• ICAC releases damning report into SA Health
• Patients have died while waiting to get into hospitals
• Flinders emergency department to become biggest in the state
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South Australia’s emergency department wait times have gone from bad to worse, new data shows.

Less than 50 per cent of cases classified “urgent” are being seen within the endorsed 30 minutes.

Overall SA had the second worst record in the nation with just 58 per cent of people seen within clinically recommended targets, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018/19 figures show.

That’s down from 60 per cent on the previous year and well behind the national figure of 71 per cent.

On a positive note, the report covering the five triage categories ranging from “resuscitation” to “non-urgent” was 100 per cent of people needing resuscitation were seen immediately.

In the next category of “emergency”, just 60 per cent of people were seen within the recommended 10 minutes, the worst result in the nation and down from 63 per cent for the same period in the previous year.

Outside the emergency department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The fall in the “urgent” category” from 48 per cent to 46 per cent in a year ranks SA as second worst in the nation, behind only the ACT.

In the “semi-urgent” category, 65 per cent of people were seen on time compared with 66 per cent the previous year, while in the “non-urgent” category, 89 per cent were seen on time – the same as the previous year.

The damning data comes amid record ambulance ramping at EDs, while presentations at chronically clogged EDs soared from 501,751 to 515,521 in a year.

State Government efforts to deal with rising demand include this month’s announcement of a massive expansion of the Flinders Medical Centre ED which will make it the biggest in the state.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said: “We have seen ambulance ramping doubling since the election, three ramping deaths this year and now this damning report which says our emergency departments are the nation’s worst and getting worse.

“The Government’s program of cutting beds, cutting doctors and nurses is having an impact on patient care. While SA is cutting frontline health services, other states are investing and improving their performance.”

Mr Picton said the Government was ignoring an independent look at the serious ICAC investigation into corruption in SA Health, “costing us funding which could be invested in patient care”.