Ambulance Ramping

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier accept that extreme ramping was a contributing factor in any of the cluster of nine deaths of South Australian Ambulance patients late last year?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order: that question contained a lot of argument and is inappropriate according to standing orders.

The SPEAKER: Does the Premier accept that something may have contributed? If the member for Kaurna wants to rephrase it or insert some fact, with the leave of the house, I will allow the question.

Mr PICTON: I don't know how. It doesn't have any argument, but I will do my best. Does the Premier accept that ramping was a contributing factor in any of the nine deaths of South Australian Ambulance patients?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I am going to allow that question. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:23): We canvassed quite a lot of this yesterday. There was an independent review of a number of reported adverse incidents. What we have now is confirmation that there were 12 adverse incidents that occurred last calendar year, of which I think the member is referring to nine that occurred in the last five months, between August and December of last year. Those matters are now subject to further investigation by the Coroner. It's up to the Coroner to determine what the causes of that situation or those adverse events were and we will wait to find out what the Coroner has to say. Those opposite who—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —haven't been privy to conducting that research and investigation themselves are somehow out there at the moment trying to assert what the cause was. Personally, I would rather wait to see what the Coroner finds out. What I would say, though, is that the South Australian Ambulance Service did independently get this work done to evaluate the peak in the number of incidents reported last year. This is excellent, because it is shining a light on the problems that have existed in this organisation for some time.

If we look at the detail provided in the report and in the 14 recommendations, it talks about a culture that is more focused on achieving the KPIs rather than the right patient outcomes. I commend the South Australian Ambulance Service for commissioning this research and making sure that they could look at this information and take action on it. We wish them all the very best in working with the health department more broadly to make sure that we can provide the very best service possible for the people of our state.