CANBERRA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Health professionals warned that overcrowding of hospitals in the Australian state of South Australia has caused chaos and unsafe conditions for patients, according to local media.
Medical experts said blockages, which have halted the admission of patients from emergency departments to their own private room, have hit "crisis point" with the situation only likely to worsen during the peak winter period.
Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation state secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the 1.76 billion U.S.-dollar Royal Adelaide Hospital has already exceeded its 700-bed limit, and was currently holding around 750 people.
Patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital were put into temporary overflow wards and had limited access to food and bathrooms on Thursday night.
"We really are in a situation where everything is log-jammed, banked up, people can't get in and people can't get out of the system," Dabars told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday evening.
"We are very concerned that people are in areas that are not appropriate for their ongoing treatment and care.
"We are aware of the recovery area being used as an overflow area, both for people who have recovered from procedures, but also for people who have presented at the emergency department and there's simply no other location to put them."
William Tam, a doctor at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, said overcrowding issues were not due to an increase in the amount of patients, but by blockages which resulted from long term hospital stays.
"The number of presentations has not really changed that much compared to the old statistics. The problem is bed block," Tam said Thursday night.
The South Australian government has leased 10 aged care beds from a private provider and has looked to increase the number of home visits for patients in an attempt to limit the bed block issue.
