WCH to open more treatment spaces in their ED

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital will open nine new ‘overflow' treatment areas in a bid to handle demand in its overstretched paediatric emergency department.

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital will staff nine overflow areas at its paediatric emergency department (ED) as it grapples with high ­demand.

The move comes as every metropolitan public hospital ED was operating above capacity on Tuesday, while the Royal Adelaide Hospital had been on code yellow from Monday until late Tuesday afternoon, signalling a “major incident” due to demand.

Efforts to deal with it ­included reviewing every patient with a view to discharging them when safe, and increased use of community services such as My Home Hospital.

At 2pm on Tuesday the WCH ED was on code white – treating more patients than its official capacity – and average waiting time to be seen was 75 minutes.

All other metropolitan public hospitals were also on code white and there were 99 ­patients who had been treated and were waiting for a bed, including three waiting for more than 24 hours.

The nine “pods” at the WCH were set aside for potential overflow when the pandemic hit and now will be staffed during “peak hours through winter”, in addition to the 26 ED treatment spaces.

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The WCH will also start a phone service where ED clinicians talk parents through non-urgent problems in an effort to give appropriate care without the need for a trip to hospital.

Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said the moves would help staff ­respond to increasing demand.

“Various challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic, have resulted in a rapid rise of children and young people presenting to the ED seeking support,” he said.

“Operating and staffing the nine PED pods during peak hours through winter will offer additional treatment spaces, help patient flow and reduce wait times. This is especially important as we enter the winter demand period.”

Women’s and Children’s Health Network chief executive Lindsey Gough said the pods will be staffed during the busiest time of day.

“Until now, the pods had been used as a temporary overflow area during times of increased demand,” she said.

“Staffing these pods during the hospital’s busiest time will allow for an increased capacity in our emergency department.

“We have also introduced an additional safety and quality nurse, a general practitioner liaison, and several new mental health staff to improve flow and quality of care for some of the state’s most vulnerable patients.”

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said there is a health “crisis” with record ramping and Flinders Medical Centre as well as the RAH recently declaring “internal disasters” in their EDs.