Alarming findings in the emergency rooms of South Australian hospitals show the health system is failing, amid a looming COVID-19 wave.
A woman suffering an ectopic pregnancy was turned away from an Adelaide hospital stretched to the limit last week, a report from the doctors union has found, as the state braces for another COVID wave.
"Do I see people on the ramp who are in desperate need, and those ambulances need to be desperately out there [in the community], or do I see someone in the waiting area who probably requires more urgent care from that position?" she said.Health Minister Chris Picton said he would investigate the claims made in the reviews.He acknowledged people were having tests done in waiting room chairs of emergency departments, something he said had been happening for some time.
Concerns were also raised over diaster processes after it emerged that no-one at the Royal Adelaide Hospital's emergency department saw a message advising of a catastrophe regardingSA reports four COVID-related deathsanother wave in COVID cases after the BA.5 subvariant was detected in the stateChief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning the new subvariant made it difficult to predict case numbers.