New transition care service to help patients stuck in hospital beds

For the first time in South Australia, a city hotel will provide a new location for public hospital patients who no longer require acute care, to rest and recover in comfort at no cost – while freeing up beds for people who need them.

The new innovative model of care will initially see up to 24 patients relocated from metropolitan and peri-urban hospital beds to the Pullman Adelaide, in their own rooms on one floor of the hotel.

The new Transition Care Service will be used by a variety of patients including:

• people who are medically stable but still require clinical care and other supports whilst they wait for community or aged care accommodation, rehabilitation or at-home support to become available.
• post-operative patients who don’t require acute hospital care.

The service will begin taking patients in the next few weeks, supported by on-site medical and nursing staff – with access to allied health staff and specialists – to provide appropriate patient care.

The arrangement between SA Health, Amplar Health Home Hospital Pty Ltd and the Pullman Adelaide will be for an initial 12-month period, and if successful could be extended or expanded to other locations.

It follows similar successful models of care currently offered in Queensland for patients who no longer need acute medical treatment, but who would benefit from receiving care in an alternative environment to hospital, helping to free up beds.

It’s also a similar idea to the service provided by some private hospitals where maternity patients move from a hospital to a hotel to recover after giving birth.

The new service comes as latest data shows there are currently 253 patients stuck in metro hospitals ready for discharge but awaiting a Federal aged care placement – a 158 per cent increase in just 15 months.

SA Health is today launching a new public dashboard – to be updated weekly - to highlight the extent of the problem of aged care patients stuck in hospitals.

The latest national report card from the Productivity Commission, released last night, also shows South Australia has the highest median wait time in the country for a Federal aged care bed following Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) approval.

SA patients are waiting 253 days to be placed – almost double the national average of 136 days, according to the Report on Government Services 2023-2024.

South Australia also has the highest rate in the nation of hospital patient days used by South Australians waiting for an aged care bed - 24.4 days in 2022-23, compared to the national average of 13.2 days. This is an increase of almost 35% in two years.

Our state also has 23% fewer operational aged care places per capita than we did when the data first started being tracked in 2015.

A lack of primary care also continues to impact. The percentage of people who have delayed or did not see a GP due to cost more than doubled in SA in recent years.

Despite these pressures on hospitals from the aged care and GP crisis, ramping improved in January compared to the same time last year. This is despite an increase in ED presentations, including an eight per cent increase in the most serious cases.

Ambulances spent 3,479 hours on ramps in January 2025, a 12 per cent decrease compared to January 2024 and a 37 per cent decrease compared to July 2024.

For the past five months ramping has been better than the same time the year before.

Northern Adelaide LHNs continues to perform strongly since the State Government opened additional beds in August 2024, with both Lyell McEwin Hospital and Modbury Hospital ramping down 35 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Productivity Commission data also out today demonstrates that:

• South Australia has achieved the biggest improvements in the nation in ambulance response times in both of the past two years.
• The first two years of the Malinauskas Labor Government have seen an overall 37-minute improvement in the benchmark 90th percentile response time metric – far exceeding the improvement of all other capital cities.

The new public dashboard showing aged care delays impacting hospitals is here.

Full ramping data – including a hospital-by-hospital breakdown – can be found here.

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Attributable to Chris Picton

We’re looking at every opportunity to safely expand our bed capacity, reduce pressure on our EDs and provide patients with access to high-quality care.

Right now, there are a staggering 253 older South Australians who are medically ready to leave hospital but are stuck there because they’re waiting for an aged care bed.

That’s the equivalent of more than the entire Modbury Hospital taken out of the system.

The latest Productivity Commission national report card shows SA has the longest wait time in the country for a Federal aged care bed.

We welcome the Albanese Government’s efforts to address this problem, after years of inaction from previous Liberal governments, but we know there’s more to do.

That’s why the State Government is taking every possible step we can – including now using these hotel rooms for people stuck in hospital and medically cleared to leave.

Attributable to SA Health Chief Executive Dr Robyn Lawrence

This model of care has proved to be very successful in Queensland and internationally. The way health care is being delivered around the world is changing and with demand in South Australia and around Australia continuing to increase, we need to continue look at new ways to care for our communities.

This new arrangement will provide a safe environment for the many patients we have in our hospitals who no longer require acute care.

Patients who have finished their acute care journey will be appropriately looked after by nurses and healthcare professionals in comfort, and more hospital beds will be available for those who need them most.

Attributable to Amplar Health Chief Executive Officer Robert Read

We’re thrilled to be partnering with SA Health to deliver this innovative service which will benefit both patients and South Australia’s hospitals.

If a patient no longer requires acute care in hospital, this new service is the perfect place for them to recover with support and clinical care suited to their needs.

At Amplar Health, we believe there is a need for a 'health transition', to change the way healthcare is delivered to increase capacity in the system and look after patients where they feel most comfortable.

This new service embodies our vision and commitment to revolutionising healthcare delivery in Australia and is testament to the future of healthcare in Australia.