Aged-care patients locked in hospital beds fuelling South Australian ramping crisis, warns Dr Chloe Furst

South Australia has the highest rate of patients stuck in hospital limbo in the nation and a leading doctor warns the cause is a problem no one is willing to fix.

Hospitals are no place for aged-care residents, medicos say. Picture: iStock

South Australia has the highest rate of aged care patients now stuck in limbo in hospitals in the nation, it has been revealed.

Medicos say it is a dual blow with the elderly-care residents occupying crucial hospital beds while remaining in an environment that often does not meet their needs.

Geriatric and palliative medicine consultant Chloe Furst said there were more than 250 patients in the state waiting for a federal government aged-care bed.

“South Australia has the lowest aged-care vacancy rates in the nation … the modelling and need for age care beds hasn’t grown with our ageing population,” the Royal Adelaide Hospital acute and urgent care medical lead said.

Instead, seniors in care who need to remain as “physically and cognitively able as possible” remain in a “transition space” for weeks or months, taking up hospital beds.

“It means we can’t move people through the system in a timely fashion and that contributes to issues such as ramping,” Dr Furst said.

Geriatric and palliative medicine consultant, Dr Chloe Furst. Picture: Supplied

“But most importantly, it means individuals are stuck in a space where they’re really not getting the care they ideally should.

“It’s not ideal for them to be waiting in a hospital bed … when they could be in a better environment in a nursing home … which is more homely, which has increased socialisation; people’s physical mobility declines in hospital as opposed to in a nursing home.

“It’s certainly not good for the individual that’s stuck and it’s not good for the system ... (it can be) a little bit depressing to see that (older patients) haven’t always been respected and valued by our health care system.”

Dr Furst, who advocates for at-home care, urged people to talk openly with loved-ones about ageing.

“I think there’s a tendency to stigmatise ageing but we need to be having realistic conversations around what ageing looks like … and talking about what people want to happen if they become very unwell … with all of our modern medical technology, we’re able to keep people alive for a lot longer but that doesn’t necessarily translate to a good quality of life,” she said.

It’s a sentiment shared by Melissa Reading who created national online care platform Violet.

“We don’t talk about or plan for this life stage enough … what that means is there’s a real lack of preparation and understanding around key decisions; they’re often left until crisis moments in hospital corridors where someone has had a fall,” she said.

According to state government figures, SA has recorded a 161 per cent increase in patients stuck in metropolitan hospitals between October 2023 and April of this year.

In a bid to ease the pressure, it has created 55 new beds for elderly patients at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.

Originally published as Aged-care patients locked in hospital beds fuelling South Australian ramping crisis, warns Dr Chloe Furst