A state wide code yellow has been called for all public hospitals in South Australia. It means all non-urgent elective surgeries have been cancelled. The state government and its health department are largely blaming the problem on a surge in respiratory illnesses and an ageing population.
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00:00 The bed occupancy is at 100 percent, so there's no capacity to admit any more patients.
00:10 Why is it happening?
00:13 I guess the trigger at the moment is because of the viral infection increase, COVID, flu
00:18 and RSV. So that's caused a surge in cases. There's 140 COVID and flu cases as inpatients
00:26 now, but also it's had a huge impact on the staff. So there's 140 staff across the system
00:33 that have are off sick with COVID and the flu. So it's had a huge impact on the staffing
00:38 levels.
00:39 Is it very early in the season for this to be happening, given that we're not even in
00:43 winter yet?
00:45 Absolutely. It's really concerning. Prior to this, the hospital system was at capacity
00:52 and that's what we know is happening across the country. Hospitals bed capacity is really
00:59 reduced. EDs are full and as we know, there's ramping is across the system and that's a
01:06 sign that across the board, EDs, inpatients, all of the system is under stress. And again,
01:15 and really concerning, this is having an effect on the elective waiting list, the capacity
01:20 to do the surgery, to put the patient into a bed after they've had the surgery. It's
01:26 really concerning from a patient care point of view and just how this bodes for our system
01:32 as a whole going into winter.
01:33 Yeah, the elective surgery situation and any surgeries is an interesting one because if
01:39 people aren't going in for surgeries, they're waiting at home. It's costing them money because
01:45 they might've already booked to come to wherever their hospital is. But does it have health
01:49 consequences for them too, potentially?
01:52 Absolutely. So this is, the term elective surgery is really inaccurate. We prefer to
01:57 call it planned surgery. This is essential surgery that needs to happen for the patient
02:03 and they're living with that condition while they're waiting for the surgery. And as a
02:07 result, suffering and I guess there's a potential that their condition may become worse in that
02:13 time as well. So this is essential surgery. This is planned surgery and it really needs
02:18 to happen. And it's so, you know, has a huge impact on our patients when surgery is cancelled
02:24 at short notice. And if this has happened several times, you know, it has a huge impact
02:29 on their life and their wellbeing.
02:33 Has there been sufficient contingency planning for this? Are staff levels at the degree that
02:39 they should be? Are beds being opened up by getting people out of them and back into the
02:44 community?
02:47 We believe there are beds coming online. As I'm sure you understand, you can't just make
02:53 beds happen straight away. So, you know, there's, it has to be buildings built and things put
02:58 in place, but also there has to be the staff for those beds as well. And that is a concern
03:04 as well. Look, COVID and the pressure on the health system has had a huge impact on medical
03:10 staff and all health staff. As long-term pressure hasn't eased since COVID and it really is
03:19 taking its toll on the staff. And that is a huge concern for us. We'd like our medical
03:26 staff to be able to do what they can do for their patients, do their best for their patients
03:32 and feel that they're doing the best they possibly can. And if that is made difficult
03:37 for them, that is really difficult conditions to live under. So that is our concern, is
03:43 the wellbeing of our workforce and building a stronger workforce going into the future.
03:49 Dr. Williams, we hear about South Australia having ambulance ramping, long wait times
03:57 in A&E. I mean, how does it compare to other states and territories? Why do we hear about
04:02 it in South Australia more?
04:06 I think it's Australia-wide. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head how we compare
04:12 at the moment, today, this week, but it is certainly an Australia-wide problem with bed
04:18 capacity, elective surgery capacity. And I guess a really important part of this as well
04:24 is the prevention of this, which is in primary care, which is in general practice. And they
04:31 have been really hit hard over the long term by inadequate Medicare and also more recently
04:37 by payroll tax. So really, as I'm sure you understand, prevention is better than cure.
04:45 And this is done in general practice in primary care. And investment really needs to be made
04:50 into primary care to help this problem long term.
04:54 Just finally then, Dr. Williams, I'm sure patients will want to know how long the Code
04:57 Yellow will be in place.
05:01 I really don't know. As I've said, this is really early in the season, and I would expect
05:09 viral infection numbers to go up. So I don't know.
05:13 [BLANK_AUDIO]