The incident, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, involved security personnel carrying the man outside the hospital and leaving him with his walking frame near Woodville Road.

“(They) didn’t sit him up on his walker or anything like that,” a witness said. 

“It was pretty disgusting to see from a healthcare service.”

The witness said she had seen the man in the hospital’s emergency department.

“All we had seen was an elderly man asking for help, his speech was slurred, you couldn’t really understand him,” she said.

“He couldn’t walk without his walker, that was very obvious,” she added.

The hospital has told 9News the man had been invited into the ED after appearing distressed in the ambulance bay, but was then asked to leave when his behaviour became “anti-social”.

“Our security staff will assess each situation … and will make sure that they are using the minimal amount of force that is required to make sure that people are safe,” Health Minister Chris Picton said. 

The hospital wouldn’t comment on whether the force was appropriate. 

But SA Health released a statement saying the man was “safely” removed by security.

The man, who is believed to be homeless, later returned to the emergency department but was not admitted as a patient. 

“If that had happened to one of my family members, I could promise you I wouldn’t be staying quiet about it,” the witness said.

“I wouldn’t really know the right way to go about it, but I just know that that wasn’t the right way.”