Ambulance Ramping

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): My question is to the Premier, given his clear interest in the facts. How many hours were ambulances ramped for the month of October? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: In May this year, the government released the figures in terms of ramping for the previous three months: February, March and April. In August this year, the government released the figures for the previous three months: May, June and July. However, on Monday—in November—the government only released the August and September ramping figures, leaving out the October figures. What are they?

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:19): I think that is an excellent question. I don't know if there's one state in the country that releases this data, except for Western Australia, where that service is actually provided—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens is reminded of standing order 127.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —except for Western Australia, as I was saying—by the private provider rather than the government itself. We are committed to releasing data, and we have released data. I think we should move to a quarterly release of that data. I note that there wasn't a policy under the previous government to release data. They didn't release data on many things when they were in power, but in opposition they are apparently the experts.

I think we have struggled in some areas in terms of some surges that we have had. There was a particular surge in the second week of October this year, which was completely unacceptable, but I am reliably informed that since then we have been able to very significantly reduce that time where transfer is delayed.

When I look at the average transfer times and the median transfer times, they are above what I consider to be the national benchmark of 30 minutes. I think the median in South Australia at the moment is sitting at about 31 or 32. The average is right out at almost 40. It is coming down, but it's at 40. It should be at 30. We need to continually improve that. That's one of the reasons why, since coming to government, we have very significantly invested in our South Australian Ambulance Service in South Australia.

In fact, when I look at the statistics, when we came to government the budget for the South Australian Ambulance Service was $250.5 million. The most recent budget for the South Australian Ambulance Service is $330 million. Last time I looked, that was a very significant increase—in fact, more than a 30 per cent increase in a three-year period.

More than that, in our first two years in government, we put on an additional 180 full-time equivalents in the South Australian Ambulance Service. In our most recent budget we committed to a further 74 full-time equivalents for the South Australian Ambulance Service. So whilst those opposite constantly want to talk about cuts—

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Waite!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —when we again look at the facts, when we came to government the budget for the South Australian Ambulance Service was $250 million. The most recent budget in the budget papers is $330 million—a 31 per cent increase. We put on 180—

Mr PICTON: Point of order, sir: standing order 98, debate. It was a very specific question asked about what the ramping figures were for October.

The SPEAKER: I am listening carefully to the Premier's answer. I bring the Premier back to the substance of the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It is interesting that the member for Kaurna doesn't want to hear about the increases, which I would have thought would have been quite interesting.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: With regard to the October statistics, I thought I gave a pretty comprehensive and full argument that in the second week in October there was an unacceptable delay. There was a very significant surge.

One of the things that we need to do in South Australia is be able to better cope with the surges that occur. One of the reasons—and those opposite don't like to hear it—why we have this inability to cope as easily as we perhaps could have previously is because of the downgrading of the hospital system under the previous government and the closure of the Repat. This doesn't actually help.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: So now we are upgrading nine emergency departments in South Australia. We are upgrading the capacity, the capability of those. The Flinders Medical Centre's emergency department has been significantly increased. It has always been the busiest—well, in recent times it has always been the busiest—and it's now the largest in South Australia. But there are eight other projects in South Australia at the moment to expand emergency departments in South Australia, and those are coming online.

Yes, I wish we could have come into government and just clicked our fingers and massively expanded that capacity, but that's not possible. We are committed to working with the clinicians, working with people in the health system, to make sure that we design something that is fit for purpose and is actually going to solve the problems. By contrast—and I just refer you again to this wonderful document called On Being a Minister: Behind the Mask by John Hill, where he goes through in a lot of detail the design of the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department under the previous government.

Despite being given significant advice that the ramping would occur there, the design was for people to wait on the ramp rather than be taken into the emergency department. This is the type of hopeless administration that we had under the previous government, one that we are fixing at the moment, but, as I said previously, there is still much more work to be done.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, Premier. Our electronic timing system has experienced a number of difficulties today. On indulgence, I allowed the answer to continue for 30 minutes. We may need to reset the system at a certain point, but we will persist for the moment with the system as it stands.