Areport by union industrial officials states that previously “unheard of” ramping is now common at the Mount Gambier Hospital and overcrowding in the emergency department is putting staff and patients at risk.


The report to SafeWork SA was produced by two officials of the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) after a recent visit to the Mount Gambier Hospital.


The report went on to state that “workers described the wait room as horrid with patients waiting up to four to five hours and standing up as all chairs were occupied”.


SASMOA chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said medical staff requested they visit the Mount Gambier Hospital to conduct a safety inspection under their legal powers, as the doctors had ongoing concerns about patient and staff safety due to repeated overcrowding issues in the Emergency Department.


“The key safety issues reported by the doctors included inadequate beds both in the emergency department and the hospital generally, a lack of equipment to treat the patients, long wait times for patients and crowded corridors,” she said.


“The doctors reported they had not previously experienced ambulance ramping at the hospital, but it was now common to find one or two ambulances ramped.


“Doctors described the situation as ‘horrid’, ‘running on empty’ and ‘using every cell in our brain and body to get to the end of the day’.


“Clearly the poor environment is causing psychosocial and moral injury to frontline health workers, requiring immediate fixes for those health workers.”


Ms Mulholland said it was in the interests of the patients and the community to rectify the problems outlined now to minimise delayed care and doctors from burning out.


“There appears to be no medical workforce plan for hospitals – or for primary health care like GPs and Urgent Care Clinics for that matter,” she said.


“Medical workforce planning is a direct responsibility of the State and Federal Governments, SA Health and the Local Boards and they are all failing.


“The Board of the Limestone Coast Local Health Network who govern the hospital needs to make it clear to SA Health and the government they need additional staffing and support immediately for this hospital – solutions need to be found now.


“Our frontline health workers and GPs in rural hospitals and health services are the health backbone of these communities and require detailed long-term planning that addresses workloads and working conditions so that staff will happily come and stay in rural communities. This is not rocket science.


“Health planning should be proactive and we should not have to wait for a hospital crisis to arrive on the community’s doorstep before resources are provided.


“While the new beds being planned in Mount Gambier and elsewhere are welcome, that is only part of the hospital capacity equation. The other part is staffing – and that cannot be left as an after-thought.


“It’s clear the people of South Australia, Mount Gambier and the wider South East are being let down and this is down to a failure of basic health planning.”


Limestone Coast Local Health Network chief executive Emma Poland denied the ramping claims and likened the Emergency Department wait times to other hospitals.


“Like all Emergency Departments (ED), the Mount Gambier Hospital ED experiences high volumes of patients from time to time which may result in lengthy waiting times for people requiring less urgent care,” she said.


“There is no ramping at Mount Gambier Hospital and patients are not kept waiting in an ambulance on the ramp outside the Emergency Department.


“When there are occasional delays in the transfer of care, patients are in the ED under the care of an experienced health professional, with an escalation pathway if their condition changes.


“This issue was not raised by SASMOA when we met with them last week.


“The safety and wellbeing of our staff and consumers is our number one priority and at the heart of everything we do.”


Ms Poland said the $24m upgrade of the Mount Gambier and Districts Health Service by the Federal Government was currently under way and would improve facilities and amenities for both staff and consumers.


“This includes a six-bed emergency department short stay unit which will increase capacity to help reduce waiting times for people presenting to our ED,” she said.


“We acknowledge that attracting and retaining health professionals in regional Australia is challenging and we are engaging a variety of strategies to build a diverse, sustainable and skilled workforce.


“This year we have eight medical interns and 59 newly qualified nurses and midwives who have commenced working across our network.


“We appreciate SASMOA meeting with staff and management last week and we will continue to work with them to achieve outcomes in the best interest of the people and communities we serve.


“The Limestone Coast Local Health Network will continue to monitor the situation with the Mount Gambier Urgent Care Clinic.


“It’s doors are open and we have not observed an increase in ED presentations due to the announcement (last) week.”