Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier guarantee that ramping will be reduced to 2018 levels and, if so, by when? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Some 3,354 hours were lost on the ramp in July 2023, which is 2,701 more hours than in February 2018, the last full month of the 16-year-old Labor government.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:05): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As the Leader of the Opposition is well aware, and I think many people within the public health system and the broader South Australian public are aware, this state government is throwing an extraordinary amount of resources addressing the challenge that we have in South Australia about growing hospital demand and what we can do to make sure that ramping is reduced.

An honourable member interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member on my left, you have asked a question; wait for the response.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We made it very clear that our objective was to reduce ramping to the extent that—and those opposite would go back and familiarise themselves with the huge amount of commentary on the public record—we can get ambulances rolling up on time. To that end—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: That's what fixing ramping means. Fixing ramping means reducing ramping so that ambulances roll up on time. That's exactly what we said at the time and that's exactly what we are getting on with delivering. What we are aiming to get back down to—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Premier, just hold on a second. Members on my left, can you please listen to the answers. I call a number of members to order. You don't want to leave today, I can assure you.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The objective of the government is to get ambulance response times back down to 2018 levels, and the reason why we want to do that is because when this government was elected to office two out of three times when South Australians called 000 with an emergency response being required, two out of three times the ambulance didn't roll up on time and people were literally dying waiting for an ambulance—literally dying waiting for an ambulance. What we have done is invest heavily in our public hospital system—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The member for Morialta is brought to attention and given a first warning. The member for Schubert is brought to attention and given her second warning. The member for Frome is also brought to attention and given her first warning. The member for Chaffey is brought to attention and given his first warning. On the third warning, you will leave.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we have done is methodically invest in a lot more resources that are progressively being rolled out through the system to the extent that I think that we've now got about 130 extra ambulance officers working within the system. We have literally hundreds more beds in the system than was the case only 15 to 16 months ago.

The results of that are starting to manifest themselves. What we have seen over the last three months during the course of this winter is a dramatic improvement in performance in our public health system. That is not to suggest that there isn't more work to be done. But in the month of May, May versus May last year, dramatic improvement; June versus June last year, dramatic improvement; July versus July last year, dramatic improvement.

The system this winter is performing demonstrably better than was the case in the last winter and that is a trend that we have the objective to continue. It won't be easy. There is more work to be done, but this minister and this government have made it a priority and we are seeing results.

More than that, when South Australians call 000 today versus what was the case when we came to office, we now know that the ambulance is rolling up on time—the ambulance is rolling up on time—to the tune of almost twice the rate of what was the case 15 months ago. So on every objective metric we see a stark contrast in terms of the performance of the health system, particularly when it comes to emergency responses, which is what matters to 000 calls and which is what South Australians rely on most.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Schubert, the member for Morialta is on his second warning and the member for Colton is on his first warning.