Elective surgeries remain cancelled in Adelaide, as South Australian hospitals grapple with overwhelming demand

SA's code yellow emergency has been extended for metropolitan and peri-urban hospitals, but will be lifted for country hospitals.

Transcript

00:00 Relief from the health code yellow for some, elective surgeries to resume in country hospitals,

00:07 but with Adelaide's hospitals still under severe pressure, the wait for surgery for

00:12 a majority of people continues.

00:14 Despite that we've continued to have every bed we've had available full and on numbers

00:18 of days we've still had our intensive care units full or over full.

00:22 So far 458 surgeries have been cancelled since the code yellow health emergency began last

00:28 Friday.

00:29 Things like your standard ones, your hip replacements, your knee replacements, but you're also looking

00:34 at surgeries that are trying to determine whether a patient may have cancer or not.

00:39 Staff illness continuing to impact the sector with 278 health workers off with COVID.

00:45 The opposition says the unfolding health crisis is highlighted by the case of an 84 year old

00:51 woman at the Lyall McEwen.

00:53 This photo was taken on Wednesday by another patient.

00:56 Her family says she was sent by her GP to hospital with serious flu symptoms and waited

01:02 10 hours to be seen.

01:04 This is another example of how Peter Malinowskis and Chris Picton and the Labor government

01:09 have clearly failed South Australians.

01:11 But we know that our hospitals are busy and that's why we need additional beds and that's

01:15 what we're delivering.

01:16 Winter illnesses including flu are major cause for the current hospital pressures.

01:21 COVID numbers also remain high with 2,429 new cases this week, almost identical to the

01:28 infection rate the week before.

01:30 But budget figures for Adelaide's three major health regions released yesterday show the

01:35 depth of the ongoing issues within the health system.

01:39 In the central area, which includes the Royal Adelaide Hospital, just over a third of urgent

01:44 care patients this financial year are expected to have been seen within the target 30 minute

01:50 period.

01:51 In Adelaide's north, that figure is even worse.

01:54 While in the city's south, where Flinders Medical Centre is the major health hub, just

01:59 a fifth of patients get seen on time.

02:02 That's why we have to build additional capacity, that's what we're delivering and that's what

02:06 needs to be in place.

02:08 With winter only just beginning, the government's new beds can't come soon enough.

02:13 For more information visit www.fema.gov

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