The state opposition says a four-year-old was given folded up towels in lieu of a pillow at the Women's and Children's Hospital despite an audit by the state government into hospital supplies.
Shadow Health Minister Ashton Hurn said she had spoken to the mother who said the boy was admitted to the hospital late last month with a suspected bowel obstruction, dehydrated and in pain.
"I've spoken to the mother and she was extraordinarily distressed about this situation, because imagine taking your young sick child to a hospital and you arrive and you can't even get the basics like a pillow," Ms Hurn said.
"They asked a nurse to go and find one … and after a 20-minute scavenger hunt, they came back saying we're sorry, we just do not have any pillows."
SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence said the Women's and Children's Hospital had plenty of pillows, and had now changed where they were stored to make them easier to access.
"My advice is we have a range of new staff at different times through our system, and staff who are less familiar with areas as they move around our hospitals," she said.
"On this occasion, the familiarity of where those pillows were stored was unknown, so they were unable to locate the pillows in a timely way."
It is not the first time patients have complained about a lack of pillows, sheets and blankets at South Australian hospitals.
Last month, a woman came forward to say her 93-year-old father could not get a pillow at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide's west.
That sparked the government to launch an audit, which found hospitals had enough pillows and were "continuing to work to ensure they get to where they need to go".
Opposition Leader David Speirs said the latest case showed something was still going wrong.
"Peter Malinauskas and Chris Picton have been saying for several weeks now there is [not a] pillow crisis in the South Australian health system," Mr Speirs said.
"Whereas we keep on coming across stories and get contacted by patients and their families who are experiencing otherwise."
'Focus Week' planned to improve patient flow
As hospitals struggle to bring down ramping times and bed block, SA Health has announced "Focus Week" to take place from May 15.
It is modelled on the "Perfect Week" used for several years by the UK's National Health Service.
Dr Lawrence said during the week, staff will have their administration tasks reduced, to give them time to focus on how patients flowed through the system.
"It's particularly aimed at freeing up time of non-clinical staff to support our clinical teams to ensure we're using our policies, procedures and practices as efficiently as we can," she said.
The Health Services Union has questioned the need for a "focus week" and said its members were planning to take industrial action, including not participating in focus week activities and refusing overtime unless it would impact on patient safety.
"The HSU's very concerned that this is just going to add to the burnout and add to stress within the workforce," branch secretary Billy Elrick said.
"They're ignoring the major gap in their service which is lack of staff and lack of attraction and retention of allied heath professionals."
But Dr Lawrence said the week was more about freeing up management and senior staff.
"We can't do that every week but a specific focus, to give us a check point to look at the things we have been implementing, see what further we can do," she said.
"I absolutely will not shy away from the fact that we have to do everything we can to improve our system and this is one of these actions."
