In a bid to help the state's health system struggling with surging COVID-19 cases, the South Australian government says it has done a deal with private hospitals to secure the equivalent of an entire hospital's worth of beds for public patients.
SA Health Minister Chris Picton said the 107 new beds would be made available to public patients "as soon as possible", after discussions with private hospitals across the state during the past week.
"This means that we can move many of the patients across our system into those beds, freeing more capacity, particularly for COVID patients in our public hospital system," he said.
Mr Picton said the number of beds was "equivalent to, say, the size of Noarlunga Hospital coming on as additional capacity into the system".
He thanked the 10 private hospitals involved and said some patients had already moved from Lyell McEwin to Calvary Central Districts Hospital in the state's north, while others would be moved from Flinders Medical Centre to Flinders Private in the south "imminently".
Mr Picton said the state's hospitals had been dealing with a "significant number" of patients with COVID-19 and flu.
As of Thursday, there were 339 people with COVID-19 in South Australia's hospitals, 26 fewer than yesterday, while the state recorded 3,957 new cases.
Mr Picton said the figures "seem to be tracking in line with the modelling we've had".
"Even though it's welcome to see that figure come slightly down today, it's too early to be popping any champagne corks around that. We're still dealing with a very serious situation," Mr Picton said.
SA Health today reported 17 historical deaths of people who had COVID-19 that occurred between April 13 and July 27.
Of those, 14 were people aged between 60 and 100 as well as a woman in her 20s, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 50s.
There were 19 deaths reported on Monday, some of which dated back to February.
New ambulance crew for Norwood
The state government also announced today that a new ambulance station, the first of five previously promised stations, will be built on the corner of Portrush and Magill roads at Maylands in the state's eastern suburbs.
According to the government, the station will be built by mid-2024 but, in the meantime, a new, 24-hour, 16-paramedic crew and 12 emergency support officers, dedicated to the Norwood area will operate out of Parkside.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the rollout in the east would alleviate pressure across the whole ambulance system.
"We know that the eastern suburbs, amongst other areas, has actually been one of the missing pieces of the puzzle that has resulted in back-filling occurring across the system and overwhelming the ambulance service," he said.
"So, getting these 28 additional ambos out on the road does make a material difference."
Paramedic Sally Njoroge — who is part of the new Norwood crew — said the announcement of the station build was "exciting" and "a step in the right direction".
"it's been extremely challenging over the last two years, with COVID, for our staff on the road, high workload, triple-zero calls are quite high, the healthcare system is obviously stretched," she said.
