Media release: AMA SA seeks guarantee on nWCH

The call follows this week's warning from the Auditor-General that the $3.2 billion budget, set in 2022, may not be sufficient.

AMA SA President Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam says the Government must not respond to budget pressures at the expense of future generations.

‘We cannot respond to today's budget pressures by cutting the hospital women and children will depend on for decades,’ A/Prof Subramaniam says.

‘South Australian families were promised a hospital with more beds, more operating theatres, a bigger emergency department and intensive care for critically ill mothers.

‘The Government must give South Australians a simple guarantee: the hospital they were promised is the hospital that will be built.’

AMA SA is asking the Government to state publicly that no savings will come from the hospital's core clinical extensions:

• Beds and room to grow: 414 overnight beds, 56 more than the existing hospital, and space for a further 20 beds as demand increases.
• Theatres, emergency and cancer care: five additional operating theatres, a larger emergency department and doubled oncology capacity.
• Women's intensive care: a four-bed women's ICU beside the paediatric ICU, which the Government committed to in 2022 so critically ill mothers are not separated from their babies, backed by a signed staffing agreement with CALHN intensive care.
• Emergency care for women: safe, rapid access from the women's assessment service to resuscitation, blood products and operating theatres, confirmed by an independent clinical risk assessment.

A/Prof Subramaniam says there is one chance to get the hospital right.

‘We understand the Government has to be fiscally responsible and make difficult decisions about how public money is spent. But those decisions cannot leave South Australia with a hospital that is too small for our future needs,’ he says.

‘Cutting capacity now, only to try to add it back later, would be a false economy. It would be more difficult, more disruptive and ultimately more expensive.’

AMA SA is also calling for any cost-driven proposal to reduce patient care areas, critical care, theatres, beds or space reserved for future beds to go to an independent clinical review panel before a final decision is made.

A/Prof Subramaniam says the panel should include obstetric, neonatal, paediatric, anaesthetic and intensive care clinicians, with advice provided within 10 working days so the project is not delayed.

‘The window to protect the hospital's capacity is now, while the final price is being settled, not after the contract is signed,’ A/Prof Subramaniam says.

‘This hospital will serve generations of South Australian families. The decisions made today must not compromise the care available tomorrow.’

AMA SA media contact: Ben Terry – 0478 847 604