The South Australian Government has announced plans to allocate A$30m ($19.9m) to add 56 beds across two major Adelaide hospitals under the state budget.

The extra beds planned for the Queen Elizabeth and Lyell McEwin hospitals will increase the total number of additional beds provided by the government to more than 600.

This expansion is equivalent to adding two new Queen Elizabeth hospitals to the state's healthcare infrastructure.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is set to receive an A$13.7m investment to deliver 36 new beds.

These are in addition to the 52 beds due to open soon in the new Clinical Services Building, which includes a new 46-treatment space emergency department.

Construction is also in progress for a 24-bed mental health rehabilitation unit at the hospital.

The North East Building will house the 36 new beds, which are due to be open to patients next year.

The state government has also allocated A$16.5m to add 20 beds to the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

This is in addition to the 48 beds currently being added to the hospital and the 23 recently opened emergency department treatment spaces, bringing the facility's total to 76.

The new acute beds will replace an administrative area, with construction starting this year and the beds due to be available next year.

State Health Infrastructure director-general Dave Forster is responsible for ensuring the fast-tracked delivery of these beds.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “We know our health system needs more beds, and we are building them.

“Our initial election pledge was to open 300 beds, we then increased that to 550 and now we’re committing to adding more than 600 beds across our hospitals to boost capacity and improve patient care.

“That’s the equivalent of adding two new Queen Elizabeth hospitals to our health system.”