A non-verbal man with pneumonia waited for more than nine hours in an ambulance outside an Adelaide hospital on a day that the doctors' union has described as "flashpoint" demand for the emergency department.
Alison Marsh was caring for her brother Michael McLean, who has a traumatic brain injury and is unable to communicate, in Adelaide's northern suburbs when a change in his demeanour prompted her to call an ambulance on Tuesday.
Although the ambulance had arrived and taken them to the nearby Lyell McEwin Hospital within 20 minutes, she said it took nine hours for him to be taken from the ambulance to the hospital's emergency room.
Ms Marsh shared her experience as the doctors' union described staff as feeling "helpless" by Tuesday evening, with a period of overwhelming demand reaching more than double that of capacity, according to the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Association (SASMOA).
Ms Marsh said her brother, who requires to be intubated to receive food and drink, received no nourishment during their time on the ramp. Mr McLean was later diagnosed with pneumonia.
When she spoke to the media alongside opposition spokesperson Jack Batty at 3pm on Wednesday, Ms Marsh said her brother was still yet to receive treatment.
"He is still in the emergency department waiting for a bed," she said.
"He's gone a long time with pneumonia, someone who's already [with] a weakened immune system. He's just had to sit and wait."
Ms Marsh said even when they had been admitted to the emergency department, her family knew it was likely they would need to wait longer for Mr McLean to see a doctor.
"Getting in the door is only a small part of the journey, so we knew that just because he had a bed, when staff asked about how long it would be to see a doctor, there was just … 'We can't tell you when, it will be when a doctor's available.'"
Double capacity
SASMOA's chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said 130 patients were "either waiting for treatment, getting treatment or waiting for a bed" on Tuesday inside the ED, where capacity is under 60.
The state government has acknowledged the intensity of the strain at the hospital, pointing to population growth in Adelaide's north as one of several factors behind the excess pressure.
Average waiting times on Tuesday afternoon were around two hours, according to SA Health's emergency department dashboard.
"We've been watching this build-up in the Lyell McEwin Hospital now for a couple of weeks," Ms Mulholland told 891 ABC Adelaide.
"Patients presenting are much higher in their acuity — the urgent care centres have pulled away those patients maybe needing lesser treatment."
Ms Mulholland said there was a "sense of helplessness" among staff in the face of the surge in demand, which came days after the union raised separate concerns about the situation at the same hospital earlier this month.
"The Lyell McEwin Hospital has unfortunately become the worst ramped hospital in South Australia," opposition health spokesman Jack Batty said.
"This is not an isolated incident last night. It's a shocking one but not isolated."
A report submitted to SafeWork SA by a SASMOA representative who visited the hospital on September 8 alleged that patients waited more than 13 hours to be treated.
'Real spike' in population growth 'epicentre'
Health Minister Blair Boyer said SafeWork SA had since "closed off" that particular case, but he acknowledged staff at the hospital had been forced to contend with "incredibly difficult circumstances".
The minister said in a three-hour period last night, "walk-ins to the ED at Lyell McEwin were double any other hospital", but added that 20 extra beds had opened at the hospital last week.
"We have seen rising presentations to our EDs for a number of years, but the Lyell McEwin Hospital certainly in the last few months has seen a real spike in that," he said.
"We talk a lot about the aging profile of our population — the oldest mainland state — which has an impact.
Mr Boyer said the state's current flu caseload was another potential cause of increased system pressure.
While the total number of flu cases in SA this year — around 7,000 — is about 20,000 fewer than at the same time last year, Mr Boyer said there had been a "huge spike" in the past week alone, with more than 900 cases.
"Up until now [we've had a] relatively sedate flu season, but that is starting to shoot up," he said.
