Authorities are warning the SA’s health system is under serious strain, and may not cope with a COVID-19 outbreak. 

South Australia's peak doctors' union says two major hospitals have entered “major incident” mode due to overwhelming demand. 

A “major incident alert” has been triggered at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) due to the pressure on emergency departments.

Only urgent or emergency surgery will go ahead while the alert is in place. 

Executive Director of Central Adelaide Local Health Network Brendan Docherty says the RAH and QEH are looking for more inpatient beds in the public system and at private hospitals.

“This will assist us to appropriately move patients from the emergency departments at RAH and TQEH and to ensure we have capacity for any patient requiring tertiary or quaternary care,” he said in a memo. 

“This is for general adult admissions and our mental health consumers.

“During the incident, we will only be seeing urgent or emergency cases from planned patients (elective surgery, medical treatments and procedural services).”

The SA Salaried Medical Officers Association's (SASMOA) senior industrial officer, Bernadette Mulholland, said a local COVID-19 outbreak would push the system beyond its limits. 

“Can you imagine now if we had COVID in this environment, it's just mind-blowing what we will be able to do, or won't be able to do if COVID crosses the border and comes into South Australia,” she told reporters.

“It's disappointing that here we are again, and again, and again, it's the same issues, the same problems, internal disaster, not enough beds, overflow of patient presentations.

“This is not rocket science, we need more investment in beds and people and we need a plan, and we're not just not getting it.

“It's the worst we have seen.

“[Staff] are saying it's difficult, it's demoralising, it's hard to keep going in these sorts of environments, when you actually don't see any improvement.” 

It is the third time in as many months that a major incident alert has been triggered at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.