Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question again is to the Premier. Has the government fixed ramping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: It was reported that our southern suburbs hospitals were dangerously overcrowded last night. Noarlunga Hospital was 212 per cent overcrowded and Flinders Medical Centre was 175 per cent overcrowded. The government has now delivered over 110,000 hours of ramping since March 2022, over 30,000 more than the entire term of the former Liberal government.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:08): I am very, very pleased to be able to inform the house and the people of South Australia that ramping has gone down 46 per cent over the last three months—46 per cent over the last three months—which probably explains why this is the first time in a little while we have heard a question on this matter from the Leader of the Opposition. I welcome the question. Let's start talking about a bit of the data.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The shadow minister for education, the students are watching!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The Leader of the Opposition interjected referring to the Chairman's Lounge. We know how enthusiastic he was to get that membership. We know how enthusiastic he was. We understand that within hours of his ascension—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —he had people on the phone. Not according to us, but according to his mates; potentially his mates who are no longer with us—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Who knows?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: That's right! But on far more important matters than the Leader of the Opposition's interest in those subjects, we know that we have seen over the course of the last three months there has been significant improvement, but there is nothing about the data that we have seen in recent weeks that has given this government a moment of complacency. We are not prematurely celebrating victory. We know there is a lot more that needs to be done.

To see the reductions, though, is welcome. I particularly think of the Lyell McEwin Hospital. In the last couple of months in the Lyell McEwin Hospital we have been able to open up a lot of new beds that were commissioned as a result of decisions that this government took quickly after forming office: 48 new beds have come online at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. We opened them up, I think, in August/September. As soon as those beds were opened, we started to see bed block alleviate at NALHN. Patient flow improved on the back of that and then ramping declined, particularly at the Lyell Mac but also at Modbury Hospital as well.

The reason why I reference that is because it is evidence that building more capacity in the system is actually making a difference. It is not that alone, but it is making a difference. That does give us a degree of hope because we know that as well as the 48 beds that have opened up at the Lyell Mac, we are going to see 300 beds open up over a relatively short period, from the middle of this year to the end of next year. We have more beds at Noarlunga coming online next year; we are seeing beds coming online at The QEH; we have seen beds come online at the Lyell Mac, at Modbury, there are plans at Flinders, and, of course, there is the massive redevelopment at the member for Kavel's community up at Mount Barker.

We made the big decisions—and some sacrifices—to invest a lot of money into our health system to build its capacity up. Where that capacity has been able to be brought online within 2½ years of forming government, it has delivered an outcome and ramping has come down, but like I said, there's a long way to go.

Also yesterday we were able to release—I think it was yesterday or the day before—the ramping data as well and the ambulance response time data and that has also improved. Ambulances are getting to patients on time, a lot more than what was the case only 2½ years ago, ramping has been able to reduce and there is a connectivity to those statistics and the capacity we put into the system. But, like I said, I can't stress enough, no-one is claiming victory. We have a lot more to do.