SA Health is to roll out a range of rapid actions to improve the flow of patients through the State’s emergency departments and to reduce ‘ramping’.
According to SA Health, the move would support clinicians to manage demands immediately while additional bed capacity was built as quickly as possible.
“Latest figures show our hospitals are under unprecedented pressure,” SA Health said, “with people increasingly unable to access GP care presenting to hospital, often sicker and with more complex needs requiring longer stays and amid the latest COVID wave.”
It said that despite another difficult month, ambulance response times were still tracking ahead of where they were this time last year.
The Department said some of the new rapid actions being introduced include: Weekly audits at all metro hospitals of long-stay patients; More discharges earlier in the day; Including using transit wards; Increasing staffing for patient offloads at the new Lyell McEwin Hospital ED; and Reviewing staffing for the care of emergency triage in emergency departments.
It said it would do everything possible in the meantime to improve the system while implementing the latest rapid response measures.
The Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Chris Picton said the crumbling of bulk billing and primary health care puts unprecedented pressure on our hospitals.
“When people can’t get a GP, they become sicker and are ending up in our hospitals for longer, with more complex health issues,” Mr Picton said.
“That’s why we are rolling out a range of rapid response measures to help get things moving faster in the immediate term while work continues on our longer-term measures, including hundreds of additional hospital beds being built,” he said.
“We thank our hard-working hospital staff for their incredible work during this time of extreme pressure,” the Minister said.
