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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-06-14 Daily Xml
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LYELL MCEWIN HOSPITAL

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:10): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Today I table an investigation by the Chief Public Health Officer, Dr Stephen Christley, into statements in the media that patients were treated on the floor of the Lyell McEwin Hospital Emergency Department and that the hospital had run out of oxygen on the evening of Tuesday 15 May 2012. On Friday 18 May 2012, the President of the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association, Dr David Pope, said on ABC radio:

On Tuesday evening, the Lyell McEwin [Hospital] ran out of all hospital beds and barouches and senior doctors were asked to see and assess patients on the floor because there didn't seem to be any other option available.

He further stated on Channel 10 news that:

...having patients being put on the floor to be cared for in an emergency facility in Adelaide hospitals is unbelievable—

and that:

Running out of oxygen, not having adequate nursing assessments and monitoring going on, not being able to be properly medically assessed because patients can't be undressed, their dignity is compromised, their privacy is compromised.

On Wednesday 23 May 2012, Dr Pope stated on ABC radio:

What happened was that the hospital and the Emergency Department ran out of beds and barouches. There were patients who needed to lie down to be assessed for their conditions and there was no option but for the people to use the floor. So medical staff were seriously asked if they would see and examine and treat people on the floor...nobody was on the floor for any length of time but that was the situation that was faced by medical staff at that time.

There is no doubt that the Lyell McEwin Hospital was particularly busy on the evening of Tuesday 15 May. One manager described it as one of the busiest days of the year. However, the claim that patients were treated on the floor was taken very seriously and, in the absence of any evidence, the Chief Executive of the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network commissioned an investigation. Last night, I received the findings of the investigation into these statements. In summary, the investigation states:

From available evidence, no patients were treated on the floor in the Lyell McEwin Hospital Emergency Department on 15 May 2012 as was alleged. The hospital did not run out of oxygen. While beds and barouches were fully utilised, resulting in examination of one identified patient and possibly others being delayed, and some patients being accommodated on chairs rather than beds, no evidence was found of any adverse clinical outcome as a result of a lack of a bed or barouche.

The investigation findings state that Dr Pope, who works in the hospital's emergency department, was asked to document the cases he had raised so that they could be investigated.

Dr Pope did not identify any incidents where patients had been treated on the floor. Dr Pope recounted a comment from an unidentified nurse to a senior doctor that if he needed to examine a patient he would need to do so on the floor because no beds or barouches were available. The doctor did not examine the patient on the floor. On interview, the senior doctor said he did not know whether the nurse was serious or joking. The investigation did not find any cases that matched the statements made by Dr Pope or media commentary that patients were treated on the floor.

The investigation makes a number of recommendations to improve the functional capacity of the hospital, and hospital management have accepted these recommendations in full. I have been advised this morning that many of the recommendations are already in progress and others will be implemented in discussion with staff. This includes managing the Lyell McEwin Hospital and Modbury Hospital as one service across two sites and improving hospital discharge processes and timeliness.

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