“I want to be upfront and honest about that – make no mistake, our hospital system is under extraordinary strain,” he told reporters.
“I have been formally advised by the chief executive officer of (SA) Health that last week was one of the toughest weeks that South Australia has ever experienced with respect to hospital pressure.
“There is a lot of demand on hospital capacity at the moment, so much so that I can reveal today that on Friday last week a decision was taken to ban all non-urgent overnight elective surgery in our public hospitals.
“That is significant news.”
Malinauskas called the press conference after meeting with Spurrier and Stevens yesterday to discuss the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said he was “certainly unaware” about the current state of South Australia’s health system, saying it was up to former Health Minister Stephen Wade to inform the public about the ban on elective surgery.
“I don’t recall Premier Marshall or Minister Wade on Friday telling the people of South Australia the day before the election that they were cancelling elective surgery and that the hospital system wasn’t coping,” he said.
“What I’m saying is they certainly weren’t told.”
SA Health chief executive Chris McGowan, who was also at the press conference, told reporters that he made the decision not to announce the elective surgery ban because the government was in caretaker period.
He said the ban was resxjmtzywtricted to one local health network and such a move was “not unusual”.
