South Australia's biggest public hospital is operating above its official capacity, with staff told to delay non-urgent tasks as they struggle to deal with an influx of patients leading into winter.
A boy who was admitted to hospital in pain last month with a suspected bowel obstruction had to sleep on a folded up towel because nurses couldn't find him a pillow, despite an audit by the state government into hospital supplies.
EXCLUSIVE: Paramedics will be “empowered” to treat patients at home rather than transport them to hospital and a new cabinet committee will be formed to tackle ramping, under a SA Health proposal which already has some workers planning industrial action.
The head of the specialist health team running the Howard Springs facility near Darwin says his staff won't leave until they're confident NT Health can safely manage a doubling of repatriations. But the NT Opposition and health groups are sceptical about the prospect of finding and training 400 extra staff.