The South Australian Government will source 20 beds in private hospitals to help deal with chronic overcrowding in Adelaide's major public hospital emergency departments.

Key points: Overcrowding in Adelaide's major public hospital has been described as a 'crisis'

Overcrowding in Adelaide's major public hospital has been described as a 'crisis' Doctors have joined nurse and ambulance unions to draw attention to the problem

Doctors have joined nurse and ambulance unions to draw attention to the problem Health Minister has urged unions not to take industrial action and disrupt elective surgery

The latest development comes as doctors have pledged to join nurses and ambulance officers in an industrial fight over the problem unless the State Government offers an acceptable fix by Friday.

In a rare show of industrial solidarity, the Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) joined with the nurses' and ambulance officers' unions to draw public attention to the problem.

SASMOA industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said doctors would not stand in the way of planned industrial action by nurses, which could result in the cancellation of elective surgeries which require patients to stay overnight in hospital.

"What we have reached is a point of crisis," she said.

"We're actually asking our clinicians to choose between those people now waiting in the ambulances and those people waiting for elective surgery.

"That is not a choice our clinicians should be making."

Ambulances ramped at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. ( ABC News )

Nurses union secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the planned action was not a decision nurses made lightly.

"It is a decision made because the reality is people who require urgent and emergent care are not getting the beds they need and it is those people who need to be prioritised in a system that is under extreme distress and extreme failure," she said.

"We are hearing reports of mental health patients occupying emergency department beds for 110 hours consecutively in an area where the lights never switch off.

"They can't get a hot meal and they can't even get ready access to a toilet. It's just outrageous.

"We're also hearing of instances where 80-plus-year-olds are waiting 17 hours in the emergency department unable to move through the system. Again, it's just unreasonable and unjust."

Ms Dabars demanded the Government re-open 50 beds at the Repatriation General Hospital, which was closed by the former Labor government.

"We know that there is the infrastructure there. We believe that those beds could be reopened in a really timely, effective way. We believe in fact it could be done within the period of four weeks which I think is a very fast turnaround," she said.

Minister pleads for no action

Health Minister Stephen Wade urged the unions not to disrupt elective surgery.

"I call on the unions to stop any talk of industrial action. The fact of the matter is, industrial action does not help one single patient," Mr Wade said.

Health Minister Stephen Wade has urged the unions not to disrupt elective surgery. ( ABC News: Ben Pettit )

Mr Wade said since his emergency meeting with unions less than a fortnight ago, more than 30 patients had been transferred out of acute hospitals and into beds in country hospitals.

Today he announced the Government would also open 20 beds at Flinders Private and Calvary — to help deal with the increased demand.

"I believe that the unions, clinicians and myself and the Government share a determination to put the patients first. Industrial action does not put patients first," he said.

"Whereas Labor closed beds, the Liberals are opening beds."

The Ambulance Employees Association said while the problems were not of the Liberal Government's making, Mr Wade had failed to address them.

"The latest budget didn't mention this, didn't mention hospital overcrowding," AEUSA secretary Phil Palmer said.

"So despite all the promises and the noise made while in opposition, it's gone on as business as usual as if the other government, the previous government were still in power."

Mr Palmer said the Government's decision to shift patients from metropolitan to country hospitals had created further problems, with local patients now unable to access a bed.

"Volunteers from Mount Pleasant are being sent with patients to Adelaide because they can't get into Gumeracha. That's not a solution. It's not even a bandaid," he said.

SA Ambulance Service ambulances wait at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. ( ABC News: Eugene Boisvert )

Ambulance officers invite patients to tell stories

The ambulance officers' union said it would ask patients who have been trapped in ambulances waiting for a bed to communicate through the media.

"We know there's some horrible stories out there, some really horrible stories," he said.

"Stories that if it was your mother or grandmother, you'd be appalled and horrified. And it's happening on a daily basis." he said.