Patients waiting ‘days’ for help in Adelaide emergency department
The South Australian health system is at breaking point, the state parliament has heard, with one emergency patient waiting a shocking 88 hours for treatment.
Bernadette Mulholland, the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial officer, told a parliamentary committee hospital administrators were directing medical officers to discharge patients before they were ready to go.
Ms Mulholland said it was a direction being given for financial reasons.
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A parliamentary committee has been told the South Australia health system is at breaking point.
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“I’m concerned with any reports that administrators might be overriding clinical decisions,” SA Health Minister Stephen Wade said.
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The committee was told nine people spent more than two days waiting in an “incredibly busy” emergency department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital last week.
Among them was one patient who waited for 88 hours.
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The ambulance union says paramedics are sometimes being forced to choose which high-priority job to attend.
Paramedics will start industrial action tomorrow after the union’s seven day deadline demanding the government better fund the service was met with silence.
Mr Wade said the government was committed to a quality ambulance service but that it meant “reform”.
Source: Thanks msn.com