HEALTH authorities yesterday denied there had been a surge in patients being transferred from metropolitan areas to Mount Gambier Hospital due to the relocation of patients to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital in Adelaide.
This follows a key doctors union questioning if Mount Gambier could absorb the overflow of patients given the recruitment issues plaguing the South East public health facility.
After a damning independent report was handed down earlier this year into serious workforce issues, the hospital is continuing to have problems recruiting senior doctors.
Around 300 patients were ferried to the state-of-the-art new $2.4b RAH this week, which has seen some other hospitals hit with heavier workloads.
SA Salaried Medical Officers Association senior industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland yesterday questioned whether the Mount Gambier Hospital could handle more patients given the recruitment issues facing the facility.
“This would be silly if the hospital doesn’t have the staff to support that extra workload,” Ms Mulholland told The Border Watch yesterday.
But Country Health SA South East director Jayne Downs yesterday downplayed the impact the RAH transfer of patients was having on Mount Gambier Hospital.
“During the new Royal Adelaide Hospital ramp down period there was no significant change to the number of patients transferred from Adelaide hospitals to Mount Gambier Hospital,” Ms Downs said.
She said typically up to 18 patients per month were transferred from Adelaide hospitals to Mount Gambier Hospital to receive ongoing care prior to their discharge home and these patients were residents of Mount Gambier or surrounding areas.
“The new Royal Adelaide Hospital is the flagship hospital for all South Australians, not just Adelaide residents, and every day at the new RAH a large number of country patients will be receiving world-class care in the new state-of-the-art facilities.”
At any given time, around 17pc of patients in Adelaide hospitals are from country areas.
Regarding the hospital’s ongoing recruitment drive, Ms Downs said a number of appointments had been secured but the health facility was still trying to secure senior postings.
In particular, she said the recruitment of two full-time physicians was still ongoing.
“We are still working to recruit resident medical officers with a sufficient mix of seniority to fill all vacant posts, including the additional ward and emergency department shifts funded in the review and two full-time physicians,” the regional health chief said.
Since the review was released, Ms Downs said the hospital had successfully recruited an emergency department director, four resident medical officers in the emergency department team, as well as additional registered nurses to provide the approved hours of supernumerary triage in the department and a full-time emergency nurse educator.
“We have also made an offer to a potential emergency department consultant and are waiting for a decision on whether the person has accepted,” she said.
Unrelated to the review, the hospital has also successfully recruited a full-time obstetrician gynaecologist who will start in December, as well as a full-time paediatrician who started this week.
The hospital is covering all vacant medical posts with locum doctors.
