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Speaker 1: We're talking health this morning, and as I said just

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Speaker 1: before the break, we are in a bit of a

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Speaker 1: crisis at the moment with so many people needing beds, colds, flues,

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Speaker 1: COVID has certainly struck our hospital system as it does

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Speaker 1: every year, but we have had a spate of code

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Speaker 1: whites with hospitals fall over the last week as a

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Speaker 1: result of all of that. Ramping is certainly a thing.

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Speaker 1: Elective surgery canceled. The person at the business end, the

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Speaker 1: pointing end of all this is Head of SA Health

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Speaker 1: Dot Robin Lawrence on the line. Robin, good morning, Thank

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Speaker 1: you for coming on.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, MACKI.

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Speaker 1: This is not a good situation for our health system

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Speaker 1: and despite all the promises that governments have made, well,

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Speaker 1: not just in the last two years, over the last

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Speaker 1: twenty two years. Frankly, our hospital system doesn't seem to

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Speaker 1: be any better now than it was in two thousand.

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Speaker 2: Our hospital are certainly very busy, and there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of extremistic people in our community at a minute, and

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Speaker 2: our intensive care units are full. I think the system,

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Speaker 2: despite all of that, is managing as well as we can.

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Speaker 2: And to ensure that we continue to do that, we've

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Speaker 2: called the code yellow yesterday. I would say that over time,

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Speaker 2: there have been a lot of changes to our system,

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Speaker 2: and most recently over the last few years, we've seen

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Speaker 2: the increasing challenges in our community accessing primary care, and

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Speaker 2: that undoubtedly impacts the management of people's chronic diseases and

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Speaker 2: causes them to be more likely to be admitted to

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Speaker 2: hospital with severe disease. At the other end, we've seen

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Speaker 2: impacts in age care and our ability to discharge patients.

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Speaker 2: But despite that, patients are sicker at the minute, and

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Speaker 2: they're older and frailer, and they're moving through our system.

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Speaker 1: So okay, we've canceled elective surgery bar Category one and

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Speaker 1: pediatric Category two as I understand, surely this then creates

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Speaker 1: more problems at the other end when you get back

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Speaker 1: to doing it. It's just a bigger backlog.

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Speaker 2: Pauses an elective surgery do obviously need us to reschedule

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Speaker 2: those patients in due course, and we'll work to do

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Speaker 2: that as quickly as we can. However, it is important

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Speaker 2: that we at all times ensure that patients who need

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Speaker 2: care in the most urgent timeline receive it, and the

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Speaker 2: pause and elective surgery is to enable us to do

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Speaker 2: that at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: Is it just a shortage of beds? Is that the

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Speaker 1: issue in our hospitals? Because this happens year in year out,

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Speaker 1: where we get to winter and suddenly realize, oh, gee,

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Speaker 1: people are going to be sicker and we won't have

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Speaker 1: enough beds for them. And sure enough, that's exactly what's

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Speaker 1: happened again this year. We're just going around an endless loop,

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Speaker 1: aren't we.

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Speaker 2: Well, every single bed we have available to us is

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Speaker 2: in use at the minute, and we have two hundred

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Speaker 2: and two hundred plus patients more than the same time

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Speaker 2: last year in hospital. That's compounded by the fact that

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Speaker 2: we have hundreds of patients who have been in hospital

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Speaker 2: a long time and significant numbers of those are waiting

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Speaker 2: to go out of our hospital to alternative places for

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Speaker 2: their long term care.

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Speaker 1: Nine thousand patients waiting more than a day for a

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Speaker 1: bed across our hospitals in the last week. It's not

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Speaker 1: a great health I mean, look it is. Once you're

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Speaker 1: in there, you get looked after. But in terms of

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Speaker 1: that weight, gie, we're letting a lot of South Australians down.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure where that figure has come from, but

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Speaker 2: certainly we have the high volumes of patients waiting for

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Speaker 2: an inpatient bed, and that is exactly why we've taken

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Speaker 2: the action we took yesterday to stand up the Code

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Speaker 2: Yellow to ensure that we have our entire workforce, including

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Speaker 2: all of our administrative team and the departments, focused on

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Speaker 2: ensuring that we get patients the care in the right

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Speaker 2: place where we can best support them.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, more beds coming on screen. The Government

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Speaker 1: always points to this, and they'll be there. They've been

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Speaker 1: long planned and they're being built and they'll be on

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Speaker 1: scream I understand in the next year. Primarily, do you

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Speaker 1: think that will make a difference this time next year,

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Speaker 1: we're going to be having the same discussion.

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Speaker 2: Those additional acute beds will absolutely make a difference. But

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Speaker 2: our community needs more residential care beds and more access

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Speaker 2: to support a home for older frailer people. Those things

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Speaker 2: need to happen together, and we're continuing to advocate with

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Speaker 2: the Commonwealth to ensure that our older population who needs

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Speaker 2: that support and care as a age is able to

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Speaker 2: get it as well.

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Speaker 1: So age care packages, you want more of those. The

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Speaker 1: residential care side of it is that happening quickly enough

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Speaker 1: that is federally funded. Of course, that's out of your

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Speaker 1: control largely, but are you happy with the rate of

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Speaker 1: progress on that look.

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Speaker 2: I think we're working productively with the Commonwealth, but I

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Speaker 2: think it would be remissive me to say that we

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Speaker 2: don't need that to come on more quickly. We absolutely do.

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Speaker 2: We have hundreds of patients waiting in our hospitals to

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Speaker 2: exit to a safe place of care for them, particularly

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Speaker 2: those who require support with dementia care, and those people

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Speaker 2: deserve a place to live, not to be in hospital.

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Speaker 1: Is that one reason for the backlog? That would be

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Speaker 1: a high percentage of it. I imagine that's.

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Speaker 2: A significant issue for us, that we've got growing numbers

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Speaker 2: of those patients, as all states do, needing that supported

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Speaker 2: care in the community.

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Speaker 1: For people waiting for elective surgery have just found out

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Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours or so, it's now

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Speaker 1: been canceled as though preparing to go in today next week.

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Speaker 1: What message do you have for them.

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Speaker 2: We're deeply apologetic for the pause and the distress that

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Speaker 2: that may have called them, caused them, and we'll be

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Speaker 2: in contact to reschedule that elective surgery as quickly as

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Speaker 2: we can for them.

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Speaker 1: How quickly do you think? How long will this pause be?

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Speaker 2: I expect that the impact on elective surgery will continue

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Speaker 2: for the next week, and we'll review it at the

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Speaker 2: end of next week. Beyond that, it's really going to

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Speaker 2: depend on how the demand works.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So what you get a stronger demand, you might

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Speaker 1: lift the ban sooner. Is that what you mean?

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Speaker 2: If we can clear the patients needing acute care coming

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Speaker 2: through our emergency departments. Of course, we won't keep the

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Speaker 2: pause if we don't need it. But at the minute,

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Speaker 2: it's hard to predict what's going to happen with that demand.

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Speaker 2: So we've said we're going to reduce the elective surgery

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Speaker 2: for the next week. If something changes in that, we'll

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Speaker 2: be reviewing every single day.

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Speaker 1: Just talk me through the examples of elective surgery, doctor Lawrence.

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Speaker 1: We're talking people needing knee replacements that's been canceled. Is

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Speaker 1: that the sort of thing what are we talking about with?

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Speaker 2: Certainly, yes, some joint replacements would fit into that category,

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Speaker 2: Things like gall bladder surgery. So types of surgery that

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Speaker 2: we don't anticipate people would deteriorate quickly with the sorts

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Speaker 2: of surgery that will continue for cancer surgery, heart surgery,

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Speaker 2: those sorts of things will likely continue.

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Speaker 1: All right. People in pain though, they're going to have

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Speaker 1: to put up with that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they will, unfortunately, and I would encourage them to

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Speaker 2: seek support from their general practitioner if they need to,

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Speaker 2: if they need additional support with pain management.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon that's good enough? Though? In our system, our.

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Speaker 2: Job is always to make sure that the patients who

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Speaker 2: need acute care most urgently access that, and that's what

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Speaker 2: we're continuing to do. We will obviously look to reschedule

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Speaker 2: those patients as quickly as we can, and in the

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Speaker 2: meantime if they need additional support and care to chat

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Speaker 2: to their GP about that.

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Speaker 1: If it was a family member of yours, would you

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Speaker 1: be happy with this arrangement?

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Speaker 2: Certainly, I'd be disappointed if a family member of mine

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Speaker 2: had their surgery rescheduled, but I would also understand that

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Speaker 2: the system has to care for those who need it most.

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Speaker 1: While I have you, obviously, you'd want to get the

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Speaker 1: message out there about this time a year important to

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Speaker 1: get vaccinated. It's not too late for a flu shot.

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Speaker 1: It's going to be with us, I imagine for a

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Speaker 1: while longer, and I suppose two COVID shots should be

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Speaker 1: kept up to date.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. We're aware that uptake of both COVID booster shots

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Speaker 2: and flu shots, particularly for those at risk those over

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Speaker 2: sixty five, is at a very low level, and we'd

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Speaker 2: like to see everybody who's eligible for those and at

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Speaker 2: risk of hospitalization from those illnesses to get out and

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Speaker 2: get your flu shot and your COVID booster all.

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Speaker 1: Right, Doctor Robin Lawrence from SA Health, thank you for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.