Two major Adelaide hospitals will receive another significant beds boost in the State Budget – with a $30 million commitment to build 56 extra beds across the Queen Elizabeth and Lyell McEwin hospitals next year.
The 56 additional beds are on top of the 550 already pledged by the Malinauskas Labor Government, meaning the Government is now delivering more than 600 extra beds for South Australia – the equivalent of two brand-new Queen Elizabeth hospitals.
The Government is investing $13.7 million in the budget to deliver 36 extra beds at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
That's on top of the 52 beds due to open soon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the new Clinical Services Building, which also includes a new 46-treatment space emergency department. Work is also underway on a new 24-bed mental health rehabilitation unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In total that's 112 extra inpatient beds and an additional 15 emergency department treatment bays on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site.
The 36 extra beds will be opened in the North East Building by building new facilities for some outpatient services currently using that area.
The beds will add further medical and surgical beds to the hospital. Construction is expected to start this year, with the beds due to open next year.
The Government is also committing $16.5 million to build another 20 extra beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
That's on top of the 48 new beds currently under construction at the Lyell McEwin, due to open later this year, and 23 extra emergency department treatment spaces recently opened which brought the total number of emergency department treatment spaces to 76.
The 20 new acute beds funded in the budget will be built replacing an administration area at the Lyell McEwin. Construction is due to start this year and the beds are expected to open next year.
State Health Infrastructure Director General Dave Forster has been given responsibility for the new fast-tracked beds to ensure the beds are delivered as quickly as possible.
This year alone the Government is opening 150 new beds across our hospitals at the Repat, Lyell McEwin, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre.
In our first two years in government, we've recruited 1,432 additional health workers above attrition including 691 extra nurses and 329 extra doctors which will help staff our extra beds.
In this Budget, the Government is also committing $17.1 million over four years to expand critical dialysis services in the northern metropolitan area.
The funding will be used to build an anticipated 30-chair renal haemodialysis unit, expanding the service by an additional 21 chairs, at a yet-to-be-selected location in Adelaide's north. The new unit is a first step to help to cater for an expected 30 per cent increase in demand in renal haemodialysis services across the state over the next ten years.
As put by Peter Malinauskas
We know our health system needs more beds, and we are building them.
Our initial election pledge was to open 300 beds, we then increased that to 550 and now we're committing to adding more than 600 beds across our hospitals to boost capacity and improve patient care.
That's the equivalent of adding two new Queen Elizabeth hospitals to our health system.
As put by Stephen Mullighan
We are adding 56 extra beds on top of the 550 we've already committed to bolster our busy hospital system and meet growing demand on our services.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is getting another 36 beds and the Lyell McEwin Hospital an additional 20 beds to improve capacity for our expanding communities in the western and northern suburbs.
As put by Chris Picton
Our government is continuing to invest to expand hospital services right across our state. We need more beds to improve patient flow and reduce bed-block.
Liberal Leader David Speirs says building extra beds is 'probably wasted money'. We couldn't disagree more. We're listening to our doctors and nurses and taking every opportunity to build capacity in our hospital system.
In this Budget, we're also funding a new dialysis unit in Adelaide's northern suburbs to help meet a growing demand for these life-saving services.
