Health and Hospital Care

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:12): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the minister representing the Minister for Health regarding SA Health hospitals.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I have been contacted by a family member of a 79-year-old woman who has been knocked from pillar to post in the past week in our public health system. This constituent has been using a wheelchair since a major stroke eight years ago. She resides in a nursing home. Last Wednesday, after her physical and mental condition deteriorated, she was taken by ambulance from her nursing home to hospital. The hospital was The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH).

She needed a CAT scan to check whether she had had a minor stroke, but the scanner was not working at the TQEH. She was referred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) for the CAT scan. The family member reports a very overcrowded ED that included multiple attendances by police teams, people in the corridors and no staff to even provide the family member with a drink of water. After arriving at the RAH soon after 6pm and being made a low priority for a CAT scan, the constituent eventually received the scan at 10.30pm.

Whilst the family members waited in the ED, they noted that four groups of police came through to follow up with various patients while people continued to fill the bays and corridors. There were also no staff available to provide so much as a cup of water to other waiting patients, so busy was the RAH ED.

Around 11pm, the family members at the hospital with their sick relative were told that she would be transferred to either the TQEH or back to the nursing home, despite the fact that they had not pinpointed the cause of her physical and mental deterioration. As there were no available beds in the TQEH and it was not feasible to transfer her back to the nursing home close to midnight, she was eventually admitted to a ward at the RAH.

On Thursday morning the CAT scan results confirmed that she had not had a stroke. They did discover from blood test results that she had low sodium levels. No drip was administered to rectify the situation. She continued to have low sodium levels over the coming days and had poor mental and physical health as a result, appearing confused and disoriented to her family.

On Sunday at 2pm whilst still at the RAH a drip was administered. Yesterday morning nursing staff at the RAH announced that this constituent would be transferred back to her nursing home despite still having low sodium levels. No underlying cause of the sodium levels had yet been discovered and she was still experiencing poor physical and mental health. The hospital ordered an ambulance from the RAH to transfer my constituent back to the nursing home despite protestation from her family members, and discharged her to the foyer of the RAH to wait for the ambulance with a family member.

Whilst waiting for the ambulance a doctor from the ward realised that they had not yet received blood test results that showed improved sodium levels. The doctor ordered the patient to return to the ward. The family member returned her wheelchair, belongings and other items he had already transferred to his car, back to the ward. The constituent's bed had already been stripped, so a family member with a nursing background made the bed so that my constituent could return to it.

The constituent had also had no lunch, after a two-hour wait in the foyer, and on top of her poor health was understandably distressed. Today the hospital has said that there was no sinister underlying cause for the low sodium levels, that she just needs to be on sodium or salt tablets and that she can now be returned to the nursing home. They have yet to give her a prescription or allocation of salt tablets. My questions to the minister are:

1. Does the minister believe this is an appropriate fashion for our public health system to manage the treatment of an elderly woman who is very unwell?

2. What is the minister doing to relieve the enormous pressure on staff in emergency departments in our metropolitan public hospitals?

3. What is the minister doing to open acute mental health beds to relieve the pressure on public hospital emergency departments?

4. Does the minister agree that hospital staff are making poor decisions about patient health due to all metropolitan hospitals being at bed capacity or exceeding bed capacity, causing unrealistic workloads for health professionals?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions and will refer them to the Minister for Health in another place, and I will bring back a response.