Ambulance Ramping

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Is the minister still committed to delivering the government's promise to fix ramping in South Australia? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN:The Advertiser on Monday 26 September stated that the minister 'repeatedly declined to say if ramping would be fixed by the next 2026 state election'.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:20): I am very happy to reiterate exactly what I said at that press conference, which is exactly what we said before the election, which was that our commitment was to fix the ramping crisis and what we defined by that was the fact that ramping has got to the point—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —where ambulances are not turning up on time to people who need them. We were in a position four years ago where ambulance response times—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on three warnings.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Flinders, order!

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey, order! Member for Schubert, you are on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Four years ago, priority 2 ambulance response times, needing a response within 16 minutes, were at 85 per cent that those ambulances got a response on time. Over the course of four years, that reduced down and down to record low levels, to the point that earlier this year it was between 30 and 40 per cent of those cases receiving ambulances to respond on time. That is not acceptable. That clearly puts people's lives at risk. That is why we are unleashing record investment into our health system.

At every point, this government is making the choice to invest into our health system: more doctors, more nurses, more paramedics and hospital upgrades for the capacity that we need to make sure that we can get those ambulances to people on time.

It is not just an ambulance issue, although we clearly have very significant additional resources going into the ambulance system. It is a whole of health system issue—the flow right through the hospital system. People are getting stuck in the emergency department. A large reason why people are getting stuck in the emergency department—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —is because they can't get inpatient beds in the hospital because we don't have enough beds in the hospital. There are also other issues where we need to improve the flow within our hospitals. One of those elements we only announced a few days ago, which is that we are going to put a new CT, a new MRI machine, into Flinders Medical Centre because that is a significant blockage for patients who are being stuck in hospital longer because they can't get those scans early enough because we don't have enough capacity inside the hospital. Of course, that is one part of a massive upgrade of Flinders Medical Centre to come that this government has announced on top of our election commitments there.

The other element, of course, is making sure that we get discharges happening appropriately. Clearly, we are working with the federal government in relation to NDIS and aged care. We are also setting up additional pathways through what we have been doing with Regency Green to help some of our NDIS clients to get out of hospital and into those beds. As well, we are setting up additional housing, which is another barrier that people have to get out of hospital as well. All of these elements need to be addressed to fix the problem.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We were very clear because we understood the magnitude of the challenge, that this was going to take time and as soon as we came into office the Premier and I sat down with SA Health—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and we asked SA Health to open up all their beds, open up all capacity across the system, which has been done. Everything that is in place is operational, is running and is being used to look after patients. The issue is that we need more. We need additional capacity and that's exactly what this government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! Member for Flinders!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —is setting about doing.