In Adelaide, a patient with pneumonia waited in an ambulance for more than nine hours — ABC News Australia

In Adelaide, Australia, a man with a traumatic brain injury who is unable to communicate spent more than nine hours in an ambulance outside Lyell McEwin Hospital, waiting to be transferred to the emergency department. Michael McLean was later diagnosed with pneumonia, ABC News Australia reports.

The patient's sister, Alison Marsh, said she called an ambulance after noticing a change in her brother's behaviour. The crew arrived and took them to the nearest hospital in about 20 minutes, but McLean was transferred to the emergency department only nine hours later.

According to Marsh, her brother requires intubation to receive food and drinks, but he was not given nutrition while waiting in the ambulance. At 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, she said McLean was still in the emergency department, waiting for a bed and had not received treatment since arriving at the hospital on the morning of the previous day.

Demand exceeded capacity

Bernadette Mulholland, chief industrial officer of the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association, said that 130 patients were in the department simultaneously on Tuesday: they were waiting for treatment, receiving it, or waiting for a bed. At the same time, the department has capacity for fewer than 60 patients.

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According to Mulholland, staff felt helpless because of the surge in demand. She also said that patients presenting to the hospital were in more serious condition. SA Health dashboard data showed that the average waiting time on Tuesday afternoon was about two hours.

Reasons for the overload

South Australian Health Minister Blair Boyer acknowledged that hospital staff had been working in extremely difficult conditions. According to him, over three hours, the number of patients who presented themselves to Lyell McEwin's emergency department was twice that of any other hospital in the state.

The minister added that 20 additional beds had been opened at the hospital last week. Among the factors behind the increased demand, he named an ageing population, population growth in Adelaide's northern suburbs, and a rise in influenza cases: more than 900 cases were recorded in the state over the past week.