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20 MARCH 2026 14 NEWS ausdoc. com. au
When common feeding conditions arise, recommend Novalac

20 MARCH 2026 14 NEWS ausdoc. com. au

Corridor fix for ED bed block?

Bella Rough DOCTORS want a formalised process
for transferring patients into corridors,
lounges or other“ unconventional”
spaces on wards when faced with
critical ED overcrowding.
Emergency physician Dr
Daniel Haustead acknowledged that
bed block often meant patients were
already being moved into spare spaces
within ED.
But other departments could
help by accepting non-bed transfers
for patients who were not unwell or requiring active treatment, said the
Dr Daniel Haustead.
chair of the SA branch of the Australa-
ED at an Adelaide hospital, said SA
sian College for Emergency Medicine.
Health would need to make a state-
If a hospital knew it would have
ment endorsing the approach.
50 discharges a day, some patients
He stressed that the option would
stuck in ED could
only be used when
be moved to wards even before beds were available, Dr Haustead suggested.
“ They would
‘ It’ d be the patient who is going home in a few hours.’
ED capacity was unsafe, although he said it was already a common occurrence.
Another possi-
cafe to get themselves food throughout the day.
“ Or it would be those who are just
doctors temporarily and were not business as usual.
“ These are not desirable spaces.
He said more than 300 patients in SA hospitals were awaiting aged care or National Disability Insurance
know they were going to end up with a
bility, based on each hospital’ s ward
waiting on a placement, rather than
People do not want to be there. We
Scheme packages and that addressing
bed during the day at some stage.
design and patient cohort, was to
a health issue, for whom it should be
do not want people to be there,” he
this would“ almost instantaneously”
“ A structured, formal process,
transfer some admitted patients in
appropriate to spend a few hours in a
added.
free up space.
where everybody knows the criteria
ward beds to corridors or lounges
chair.”
“ In a fully functioning system, we
The college was also supporting the
and who goes where, will work better
when appropriate.
Portable call bells could make non-
would have a bed for every patient
SA Government’ s pledge to build men-
than what can be a haphazard process
“ It would be the patient who is
bed transfers safer, he added.
and never have to look at putting peo-
tal health assessment units next to
in some hospitals at the moment.”
going home in a few hours or who is
He stressed that the ideas were
ple onto chairs and moving them to
EDs for patients facing a psychiatric or
Dr Haustead, who works in the
well enough to be walking down to the
intended to ease pressure on ED
unconventional areas.”
drug- or alcohol-related crisis.
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