SASMOA president Laura Willington said public hospitals were faced with ramping and increasing emergency department admissions on a daily basis.
Wilington said the state’s mental health network was short about 200 beds. At the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the paediatric unit was short about 50 medical staff.
She said these were staff providing “a basic, safe service, comparable with other similar services interstate, while maintaining staff wellbeing”.
“Put simply, there are not enough beds and not enough staff funded under the ‘business as usual’ model,” Willington said.
“This leads to harmxjmtzyw for patients and the wider community, and in turn leads to fatigue and burnout in the medical workforce.
