More clinical spaces inside South Australia’s hospitals are being retrofitted in a desperate bid to build more capacity into the state’s health system.
In the meantime, the health minister has said the private system will still be used to plug any shortfalls.
The roof of the Lyell McEwin Hospital, one of Adelaide’s busiest hospitals, has just been transformed into a clinical space with 48 brand-new beds across two new wards.
“The simple reality is this the demand is already here, these 48 beds will open tomorrow and by tomorrow night those 48 beds will essentially be full,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said.
The government today revealed it will now move on to retrofit another area of the hospital to create 12 more beds.
“That’s going to be particularly used for surgery so going to the point about how we can keep that surgery operating,” Health Minister Chris Picton said.
Dr Toby Gilbert explained the bed shortages had led to elective surgeries cancelled as well as “patients in places that are not meant to be used as wards”.
But down south in Adelaide, the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals have still been postponing non-urgent procedures in recent days.
The exact number is unclear.
When questioned about whether the public hospital system would continue to rely on beds at private hospitals, Picton said the situation “changes day by day”.
“(Hospitals) will continue to make those local decisions, they will continue to utilise private capacity when they can, they’ll make sure they can operations as they can,” he said.
