13 July 2021
As the number of emergency department patients waiting for a bed continues to surpass 100 daily in our metro hospitals, the Central Adelaide Local Health Network yesterday called a major incident alert across its network.
CALHN initiated a Network Incident Command Centre (NICC) to coordinate, deploy resources and undertake other actions and tactics to get emergency patients to the beds they needed.
An email was sent to all staff requiring them to follow actions as directed by clinical leadership teams.
Yesterday, there were 122 patients waiting for a ward bed in EDs across the city. And the figure wasn’t much better this morning … 114 patients crammed in the queue, 45 of them in the RAH and 21 at TQEH.
This year has seen record numbers of people waiting for a bed, peaking at an all-time high of 139 twice in May, during which 65 people were enduring wait times of anywhere between eight hours to more than 24 hours.
“Despite our repeated calls for action, the health system remains under incredible strain, with fatigue now endemic among nurses due to the enormous demand on our under-resourced hospitals,’’ said ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM.
“These appalling wait times are resulting in delayed and missed care for patients, with exhausted nurses forced to work double shifts because of lack of staff … and yet at a time when the Government is, inexplicably, intent on shedding staff through voluntary separation packages.
“We will continue to holler and agitate and call the Government out every time, but we fear it will take a major disaster to prompt real and meaningful action.’’
The ANMF (SA Branch) again urges people to join our Action For Health campaign to pressure the Marshall Government to commit to urgent and serious measures … for the sake of everyone’s health and safety.
Join the campaign here