Hospital Beds

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:32): My question is to the Premier. Why are there today significant numbers of unoccupied beds in our major hospitals while many people languish in emergency departments waiting for a bed? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PICTON: At 2pm today, only 719 people occupied beds in the Royal Adelaide Hospital out of 812 beds in that hospital—93 unoccupied beds. At The QEH, there were only 310 out of 355 beds occupied, some 45 unoccupied beds according to the state government SA Health dashboards. At the same time, there were 44 patients in those hospital emergency departments stuck in emergency waiting for a bed; of those, 15 had been there for over 24 hours waiting.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:33): I thank the member for the question. There is quite a lot of detail in that about operational matters which I will take on notice—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —and seek an answer in relation to both the nature of those numbers and the context in which they are provided. If there is further information that is relevant in that context to the house, then I will bring that back to the house.