Stuck in lift: Rising emergency outages trigger SA hospital upgrades
SA’s public hospitals have already recorded more than 100 emergencies, from outages to a person being stuck in a lift, triggering a $20 million spend. See if your hospital is getting an upgrade.
Flinders Medical Centre has recorded 70 “code yellows” so far this year: an emergency code that includes power outages, water, ventilation issues or hazardous spills, InDaily can reveal.
Flinders has battled code yellows for years, with 130 in 2025, up from 58 in 2023.
A government spokesperson listed recent incidents including on October 8, water being unavailable and a person being stuck in a lift. Earlier this week, there was a sewage smell reported and Flinders also has had two water leak incidents and two airconditioner issues over recent weeks.
While Noarlunga Hospital recorded 63 code yellows as of August 1, already exceeding last year’s 53.
The emergencies have led to Acting Health Minister Joe Szakacs today announcing the two hospitals would receive urgent upgrades in a $20 million spend, covering 78 projects across the state.
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“The increasing number of Code Yellow activations at Flinders Medical Centre and Noarlunga Hospital highlights the importance of ensuring our facilities are reliable, resilient and able to support safe care during periods of heightened demand,” Szakacs said.
“Our hospitals are managing significant and sustained demand pressures, which is why we’re investing not only in our workforce and services, but also in the infrastructure that supports patient care every day.”
Flinders Medical Centre would receive $2.1 million to upgrade its electrical service plant – that has triggered power outages – and $1.7 million for roof upgrades, while Noarlunga Health Service received $1 million to upgrade its theatre and clinical sterile services department.
It comes alongside a Flinders Medical Centre expansion with joint state and federal government funding due to be finished by 2028 making 98 more beds available for patients.
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Szakacs – currently filling in for Health Minister Blair Boyer who is on leave – announced the funds today.
Meanwhile SA Liberal health spokesperson Jack Batty was at Aldinga with a patient claiming she was treated on the floor of the Noarlunga Hospital Emergency Department this week
Batty said this was “yet another example” of a health system under siege, after raising the alarm this week over a different emergency code in SA hospitals.
On Tuesday night, every metropolitan hospital in SA faced a “code white” – an emergency code meaning an emergency department is over 125 per cent of its capacity.
“We saw a system near breaking point. There was simply no breathing room anywhere,” Batty said.
Batty said the state government “promised to fix ramping, not fix the roofing”.
“You’ve got the worst ramping in history, patients spending hours being treated on hospital floors, and the Government is crowing about patching up a roof and keeping the lights on,” he said.
See what hospitals would see extra works completed below.
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