Ambulance Ramping

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:50): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain why 93-year-old Agatha was left to wait yesterday for three hours on the ramp at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the second time she was ramped in a month? With your leave, and that of the house, sir, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PICTON: Yesterday, the daughter of Agatha, Annalisa, phoned ABC radio to reveal that her mother was, for the second time in the past month, ramped outside of an emergency department. Annalisa said of her mother, and I quote:

She's not doing very well, she says she's had enough and she just wants to die because she's got to wait in an ambulance…What is it going to take for them to actually do something about it and open up some more beds?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:51): I thank the member for the question. This is a matter on which I have received some information. I understand that the health minister, and I join him in doing so, apologises unreservedly to the patient and her family for the deeply distressing experience that she had yesterday morning.

Without going into all of the details as identified by the member, I am pretty sure I have identified the case in question, and in this case, the Central Adelaide Local Health Network's chief executive officer has also apologised on behalf of the network for this experience.

I am advised that at the time of her presentation to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, approximately 80 patients were present in the emergency department. This surge of patients also included several urgent walk-in cases, some of which required resuscitation and cath lab intervention, several code stroke patients, and a patient suffering from an aneurysm. Notwithstanding this surge, we understand the anger and the concerns expressed by the patient's family and, indeed, share those concerns.

The house may be interested to know that the Central Adelaide Local Health Network's chief executive officer, I also understand, will be reaching out to the patient and the family personally to apologise on behalf of the network.