Wait times blow out in SA’s hospital emergency departments

As waiting times in emergency departments blow out again, the state government – which pledged to “fix ramping” – has failed to release August figures as promised.

Ramping data for August remains unknown as flagship hospitals in the north and south continue to struggle to meet demand.

Average waiting time to be seen at Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital – and Noarlunga Hospital – was more than eight hours on Tuesday morning.

At Modbury it was almost seven hours, the Royal Adelaide Hospital 2.3 hours and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1.5 hours.

Time lost in ramping for July was 3647 while in June it was a record 3854 hours.

The government – which pledged to “fix ramping” – has promised to release the data monthly but say the August figures are still be prepared.

At 8am on Tuesday there were 125 people who had been treated but were stuck in metropolitan EDs waiting for a ward bed, adding to the logjam which in turns causes ambulance ramping.

SA Health released a statement saying there has been a high demand for emergency services across the system.

“As is always the case whenever it is busy, people who present to our emergency departments are treated according to their clinical needs and we always treat the sickest people first.

“A number of initiatives have been implemented in recent weeks to improve patient wait times and discharge, including more frequent communication across the system, creating a better experience for patients and staff.

“As well as focusing on building as much capacity across the system as possible, we are also focusing on creating awareness of alternative services to emergency departments that are available to our community such as the SA Virtual Care Service and the Child and Adolescent Virtual Urgent Care Service.

“We would like to thank the community for their patience and acknowledge our hard working staff for their ongoing commitment to patient care.”

Tuesday long wait follows from similar delays to be seen on Monday.

Patients arriving at Flinders Medical Centre’s emergency department on Monday morning faced an average 8.6 hour wait to be seen, official data shows.

The long wait comes as The Advertiser revealed officials had cut the number of ED beds at FMC by 12 – from 71 to 59 – and the dozen beds were reassigned as inpatient beds “to improve patient flow.”

SA Health officials continued to list FMC as having 71 ED beds for months while trialling the new system, leaving the public data showing it had more capacity than was actually available which clinicians labelled “virtual beds.”

No beds have been lost from the hospital overall, SA Health and Health Minister Chris Picton said.

Mr Picton said putting the 12 beds under inpatient management was recommended by an independent report.

SA Health’s ED dashboard at 7.30am on Monday, September 12.

Patients at other hospitals faced similar long stints in waiting rooms at 7.30am on Monday morning unless they were deemed a high priority.

At Lyell McEwin Hospital it was 8.1 hours, at Noarlunga it was 7.6 hours and at Modbury it was 6.8 hours.

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital the average wait was two hours while at the Royal Adelaide Hospital it was just under one hour.

The delays for new patients came as the system was jammed with patients in EDs who had been treated but were yet to be placed in a ward bed.

There are 112 people admitted & waiting for a hospital bed housed in our adult EDs. This significantly reduces ED capacity to assess & manage new patients!@PictonChris@ANMFSA@SA_Ambulance@acemonline@amasamembers@sasmoa4doctorshttps://t.co/9Z16JTeSIY

— Adelaide Emergency Departments (@AdlEmergStatus) September 11, 2022

Across the metropolitan public system on Monday morning there were 112 such patients waiting for an appropriate bed, many waiting for much of the preceding night.

Twelve treated patients had been waiting in EDs for more than 24 hours, adding to the logjam.

By 9.30am the wait at FMC had eased to 3.6 hours, but at Lyell McEwin it had blown out to 9.4 hours.

Doctors’ groups were tweeting about the situation as colleagues on the frontline dealt with the situation.

The Ambulance Employees Association has reported ramping this month as figures for August are yet to be released.

SEVERE Access Block: 12 people waiting >24hrs (a whole day!) for bed in hospital, 23 more >12hrs

Is waiting this long for a bed acceptable?@PictonChris@ANMFSA@SA_Ambulance@acemonline@amasamembers@sasmoa4doctorshttps://t.co/9Z16JTeSIY

— Adelaide Emergency Departments (@AdlEmergStatus) September 12, 2022

At one stage ramping at FMC was so bad ambulances were diverted to an adjacent rooftop carpark, the AEA noted with a photo in a tweet.

Time lost in ramping for July was 3647 hours while in June it was a record 3854 hours.

FMC ED is SA’s busiest with more than 90,000 presentations a year and a recent investigation by the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association found patients being treated in chairs and allegations staff were being pressured to unload patients from ambulances and leave them in corridors.

SA Health has been contacted for comment.