Waiting room purgatory as Adelaide hospital emergency departments face waits of up to six hours

New arrivals at metropolitan hospital emergency departments faced average waits to be seen of up to six hours on Thursday morning as the health system struggles to cope with demand.

The hospital system is lurching from chaos to more chaos this morning with a six-hour average wait to be seen at two major hospitals’ emergency departments.

At 8am every metropolitan hospital had an average wait to be seen of more than 100 minutes, except the Royal Adelaide Hospital where the wait was 98 minutes.

At Flinders Medical Centre, which had 17 people in the waiting room, new arrivals faced an average wait of 378 minutes, while Modbury Hospital was almost as bad at 353 minutes.

At Lyell McEwin Hospital there was a 269-minute average wait to be seen, at Noarlunga Hospital it was 174 minutes, the Women’s and Children’s Hospital had a 121 minute wait while at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital it was 104 minutes.

The logjam comes despite a major advertising campaign by the state government stressing that “emergency departments are for emergencies” and urging people with minor problems such as a twisted ankle or cuts and grazes to see their GP, pharmacist, or self-care.

Ambulances at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Kelly Barnes

While no emergency departments were listed as being on code white – operating at over official capacity – there were 107 people stuck in EDs who had been treated and were waiting for ward beds, including three waiting for more than 24 hours.

At FMC there were 41 people warehoused in the ED waiting for a ward bed, while at the RAH there were 30.

Health Minister Chris Picton says all available beds are being used as the health system faces the double winter whammy of rising flu cases and a surge in Covid cases needing hospital care.

Meanwhile SA Health has responded to revelations by The Advertiser that about a dozen ED beds at FMC have been converted to in-patient beds as part of a trial but that the official online publicly available data still shows it has 71 ED beds available.

It has not changed the 71-bed figure, but has added an asterisk noting a trial is under way.