A senior surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has fended off criticism from a former western suburbs mayor that the hospital is already being downgraded ahead of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital opening next year.
Guy Maddern, who is professor of surgery at Adelaide University, defended changes both taking place and planned for the QEH at Woodville.
Former mayor of Charles Sturt Council Kirsten Alexander said: “Downgrades at the QEH have already started, [with] 20 beds closed and neuro [surgery] and cardiac moving.”
She urged people to contact their local MP to complain before more disappeared.
The South Australian Government previously announced the QEH was to become the “home of multi-day elective surgery”, with an increased focus on rehabilitation and treating diabetes and obesity cases, while the new Royal Adelaide would become the state’s major multi-trauma hospital.
Professor Maddern told 891 ABC Adelaide any focus on numbers of beds in use at the QEH missed the point about levels of activity and health care for western Adelaide residents.
“In essence I am not worried that we are going to lose activity — the less beds we have, the more our health system will be able to stand the increasing financial pressures it’s under,” he said.
“What we don’t want to do is restrict services, particularly in surgery. We are constantly looking at ways we can keep patients out of hospital, provide them the treatment they need and get them back to either their country hospital, home nursing support or indeed [do more preparation] before they come into hospital.
“All of that means we need less beds, [which are] very expensive and we’re trying to find ways of putting the resources we have into treating patients rather than providing hotel accommodation.”
Surgeon talks up ‘eight-minute’ trip between hospitals
Professor Maddern defended the plans to move certain health services to the Royal Adelaide in the city, saying other activity would take its place at the QEH and keep it busy.
“There is a move in the next year or so to focus more of the cardiology work to the new Royal Adelaide, which of course is only eight minutes up the road and even less in an ambulance,” he said.
“The neuro work, which is particularly stroke work, will be provided 24 hours a day with a complete team at the new Royal Adelaide, so it will make sense to focus stroke patients there once it’s opened, [but] that’s of course some time off.
“The plan at the moment is cardiology will continue to be supported here [at the QEH]. There is certainly discussion going on about whether we would be better off having a consolidated cardiology service at one site, being the Royal Adelaide, for the central Adelaide [health district] versus having two sites.”
The senior surgeon said both the QEH and current Royal Adelaide were facing increased workloads at present.
“It’s always a bit complicated when you talk about beds, because beds don’t necessarily equate to activity,” he said.
“At the moment the surgical services across the two sites are this year doing 2 per cent more work than they did last year.
“The plans that are envisaged for the next few months are to move most of our vascular work up to the Royal Adelaide and to move a lot of our breast/endocrine work and our gynaecology work, at least the surgical work, down to the Queen Elizabeth.
“So in fact the amount of activity in terms of operations being done will increase at the Queen Elizabeth, but the demand on beds will decrease because the vascular patients always stay in a lot longer, whereas these other cases are much shorter, they’re day cases or one or two days in hospital.”
Supporters of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital have protested in recent months about Government plans to scale back the emergency department and direct more people to the new Royal Adelaide once it opens, or to the Lyell McEwin Health Service in the northern suburbs.
Former western suburbs state Labor MP Kevin Hamilton said there had been insufficient consultation with the area’s residents about planned health system changes.