Due to a capacity issue, Adelaide is keeping elective surgeries on hold, forcing an 84-year-old woman to wait nearly ten hours at a hospital.
On Wednesday, the woman was seen resting on a row of chairs inside the Lyell McEwin Hospital. John Gardner, the deputy opposition leader, asserted that she had been exhibiting severe flu-like symptoms.
“At one stage coughing so uncontrollably that she nearly lost consciousness,” stated the man. Although he was unable to confirm the claim, Health Minister Chris Picton acknowledged that the wait times were excessive.
“We know that our hospitals are busy and that’s why we need additional beds and that’s what we’re delivering,” he stated.
Due to their continued capacity, Adelaide’s hospitals have been operating on “code yellow” for eight days running.
There have been 458 cancelled elective procedures as a result of the internal emergency.
Chief of SA Health Robyn Lawrence stated, “We’ve continued to have every bed we’ve had available full and on numbers of days we’ve had our intensive care units full or overfull.”
A pandemic of COVID-19 and the flu have exacerbated the situation by forcing 278 healthcare workers who are not vaccinated to report sick.
Regional hospitals have started performing elective procedures again today, but restrictions will not be lifted for the remainder of Adelaide until at least Tuesday.
Lawrence gave the assurance that anyone whose elective operations were postponed would not lose their place on the waiting list.
Following the state budget’s historic $2.5 billion investment in health yesterday, authorities have placed the burden for the city’s health issue on the federal government.
“States around the country are being caught in the middle in this squeeze, of a failure of other service delivery, particularly by the Commonwealth,” Stephen Mullighan, the Commonwealth Treasurer, said.
