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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-15 Daily Xml
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Hospital Beds

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:36): Further supplementary, thank you, Mr President. Given that yesterday (Monday) morning there were 76 patients stuck in emergency waiting for a bed, with six of them waiting over 24 hours and 25 waiting over 12 hours, will the minister reconsider his plan to stand-by close these 60 beds?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:36): Let's be clear: the reason why this government is backing the board, the CEO and their partners in CALHN is because we want to eliminate ramping. We want to make sure that we provide transfer of care in a timely way. Let me make it clear: I don't need to rely just on the board, just on the CEO and the management team in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, why don't I offer the chamber the advice of some of our industrial partners?

Phil Palmer, for example, from the Ambulance Employees Association, says that no hospital could operate at 100 per cent and have extra patients coming in and a surge because they have nowhere to go. All the hospitals are running at 100 per cent; we haven't got enough capacity in the system.

Bernadette Mulholland from SASMOA said that the norm is that you want your hospital at about 90 per cent capacity; that is, there is room for emergencies to be able to take up that slack. Let me remind honourable members, the average occupancy rate at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, since the hospital was opened, was 98 per cent. Bernadette Mulholland was suggesting in 2017 that the hospital needs to operate at about 90 per cent capacity.

Lesley Dwyer, the chief executive of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, in one of her first interviews here in South Australia, suggested that it should operate at about 92 per cent capacity. Even that is relatively tight. It is fairly normal practice around the world for beds to operate at about 85 per cent capacity.

Professor John Karnon from the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide said in 2015 that, in planning capacities, hospitals aim to operate at around 90 per cent capacity, such that around 10 per cent of the general beds are available for unexpected spikes in demand. So, surprise, surprise. What are we doing? We are planning for the Royal Adelaide Hospital to operate with about 10 per cent of capacity spare, slightly above it. This is supported by our management team, by industrial leaders and by academic leaders. This makes good sense. The only group in South Australia that believes that hospitals can work at 100 per cent plus capacity is the Labor opposition.

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