SA Liberals government told to own hospital crisis

Lives are at risk within South Australia’s health system as resources are stretched to breaking point, the nurses’ union says.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Elizabeth Dabars at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Picture: Dylan Coker.

Lives are at risk and another ­“potential Oakden scandal” looms within South Australia’s health system as resources are stretched to breaking point, the nurses’ union says.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Elizabeth Dabars yesterday said the Liberal government — which took office in March — could no longer blame the previous Labor administration for a raft of problems that included mental health patients being treated in emergency departments for up to five days because of a lack of specialist staff and dedicated beds.

Other issues included recovery rooms being used as a source of additional beds to take ­patients from overcrowded emergency areas, and patients being cared for in corridors.

“The situation is already dire,” Ms Dabars told state Health Minister Stephen Wade in a letter this week that called for an immediate “crisis meeting”.

“Our members have asserted they have officially reached crisis point,” the letter says.

Ms Dabars said mental health services had created major issues for emergency departments, with several patients each day waiting for beds at the new $2.4 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital and other acute facilities in the metropolitan area.

She said recommended protocol changes within the southern community mental health network had not been implemented because of a lack of ­resources.

“This is, to me, another potential Oakden (aged-care scandal) case where (staff) have ­reports and recommendations that are simply not being acted upon,” Ms Dabars said.

The state-run Oakden aged-care facility in Adelaide had for 10 years housed elderly dementia patients who were over-medicated, inadequately fed, injured, placed in mechanical restraints for up to 10 hours a day and isolated in squalid conditions.

The Oakden scandal was partly behind a royal commission into aged care announced this week by Scott Morrison.

The nurses’ union said the Marshall government must ­either provide extra capacity to meet demand or find alternative means for treatment and care.

Mr Wade acknowledged that South Australia’s hospital system was “clearly under stress”.

He said a multitude of problems at the flagship Royal Adelaide Hospital had created a “ripple effect” that disrupted the entire hospital network. “It is a challenging environment — we are working hard to ­address it, but it takes more than six months to overcome the design flaws of a project which took 10 years to get wrong,” Mr Wade said of the new hospital. “I understand staff are under stress.”

The government has called in experts to address design flaws in the emergency department and resuscitation bays. ­

Patients from regional areas were also being returned to their local hospitals.