Son of beloved hospital volunteer Colleen Billows, 88, says she is stuck in RAH without a room

The son of a well-known Adelaide identity says she went to the hospital for help on Friday and days later was still waiting for a room.

The son of a well-known Adelaide community advocate says she’s been stuck in Royal Adelaide Hospital without a room since Friday.

Colleen Billows, 88, is a well-known Adelaide identity and was awarded the Medal of the Order for service to the community through charitable organisations, helping support families with seriously ill children for more than two decades.

Her son Andrew Billows told FIVEAA morning radio on Tuesday she went into the RAH for an eye operation before the weekend but, as of Tuesday morning, she was still in an overspill area with no door.

Colleen Billows is a well-known community advocate. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Mr Billows said his mother was currently sharing the area, as well as a toilet and a shower, with three other men.

“She’s got a problem with one of her eyes, she sort of suddenly lost vision in it a few weeks ago,” Mr Billows said.

“She went in for a biopsy last Friday, a successful operation, but she’s still in the overflow area of the day’s surgery and hasn’t got a room as yet.

“Her eye surgeon wants her to stay in from yesterday (Monday) for another week, because she’s getting ongoing treatment.

“But where they are, nothing happens in the hospital over the weekend, everything’s closed up. The area that she’s in, we’ve got to get – out of hours – we’ve got to get the security guards to swap their passes, to get us up to the floor that she’s in, it’s not meant to be an area where visitors go into.

Volunteer Colleen Billows and Kybe at Ronald McDonald House.

Mr Billows said his mother had been given “no indication at all when she’s going to get a room”.

“She has said the staff have been absolutely fantastic looking after her, but they just can’t find her a bed,” he said.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, Central Adelaide Local Health Network Operations and Performance executive director Rachael Kay told The Advertiser Ms Billows had been moved to a private room on Tuesday.

“Following the procedure, she was transferred to a bed in a shared recovery area where she continued to receive appropriate clinical care across the weekend,” she said.

“Ms Billows has today been moved to a private room to accommodate the remainder of her stay.”

Her comments came with a statement from CALHN that said the hospital had “specially designed shared clinical environments for recovery”.

“It is common to have patients in this area when recovering from a procedure, over the weekend and at times of high pressure on the system,” the statement said.

Colleen is the widow of Western Hospital founding chairman Gordon Billows.

The Henley Beach private hospital, which went into voluntary administration on January 29 but a buyer was found – to the relief of Mrs Billows.

“We were really starting to worry about it, this is great news it will be saved, it is a really important community hub,” she said.

Mrs Billows only recently laid flowers at Gordon’s memorial tree in the hospital’s grounds and silently urged him “to get to work to save the hospital — well, he did,” she said.