Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Why hasn't the government released the ramping statistics for the month of May? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The media was provided ramping statistics for the months of February, March and April of this year, each breaking an all-time record for ramping, but so far the government has refused to release the May figures, despite repeated requests to do so.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:08): I am happy to take that question on notice and ask the health and wellbeing minister for a response and come back to the house.

Obviously, we are very concerned about the ramping that is existing here in South Australia at the moment. We find it completely and utterly unacceptable, and that's why we are doing everything we can to fix the problems we inherited from the previous government. We know that it was the Labor Party that brought ramping to South Australia and we also know—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the reasons why there has been a serious escalation in ramping in South Australia. Part of it is to do with the increased acuity and length of stay for people who are presenting at our emergency departments at the moment—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and part of it, of course, was the failed Transforming Health policies that basically cut away at the capacity for our state to respond to people presenting at emergency departments.

What the previous government did was to scale down hospitals in South Australia. In fact, they closed the Repat hospital in South Australia, which was a shameful act. It broke the heart of veterans in South Australia and put an extraordinary pressure onto our emergency departments, particularly in the southern system.

What we have done since coming to government, of course, is to recognise that our emergency departments do not have anywhere near the capacity that they require now or into the future, so we have funded—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the increase to the emergency departments that we need in South Australia and put that capacity back into place. We have very significantly increased the health professionals in the health system since coming to government: more doctors, more nurses, more paramedics. In fact, we have more than a thousand additional medical staff in the system since the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister in South Australia.

We have undone Transforming Health, invested in our system and worked to alleviate the stresses that were basically inflicted upon us by the cuts that the previous government made to the capacity. We have a huge expansion underway at the moment. We know that sometimes when you embark upon those types of comprehensive changes to the emergency department capacity we have you can sometimes have some short-term pain before you have the longer term gain.

In fact, can I just say that we are upgrading at the moment nine emergency departments across South Australia. They are the metropolitan emergency departments as well as the peri-urban departments. When that is completed—and it's not a five, 10, 15 or a 20 per cent increase to the capacity of those emergency departments—it is a 65 per cent increase. That was the necessary increase that was required. That was the necessary increase that we inherited from the previous government, the required increase that we needed when we came to government, and we have been getting on with it, sir.

As you would know, the health system in South Australia has responded extraordinarily well to the coronavirus, but regardless of that we have pushed on with working with clinicians, getting the plans in place to expand the overall emergency department capacity in South Australia. That will not fix the problem alone. We've got to have better pathways through our hospitals to other forms of treatment. We've got to have alternative pathways for people presenting at emergency departments.

We have had to expand the capacity and the capability within our South Australian ambulance services, but what we have on this side of the house is a comprehensive plan to address the issue of ramping once and for all, and there will be further information provided in the budget, which the honourable the Treasurer will be presenting in this chamber in just a little over an hour's time.