Ministerial Statement

Legislative Review Committee: SA Ambulance Service Resourcing

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:00): With your leave, sir, I seek to address the house in relation to the petition.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The petition regarding SA Ambulance Service resourcing was tabled by the member for Croydon, now the Premier, in 2021. I am pleased to report that since the time of the petition the Malinauskas government is building a bigger health system for all South Australians.

In our first three budgets, our government has delivered $7.1 billion in additional funding for our health system. We are adding more than 600 beds right across our health system. That is the equivalent of more than two additional QEH hospitals. We have added more than 1,400 clinicians above attrition since coming to government. That is 691 extra nurses, 329 extra doctors, 219 extra ambos and 193 extra allied health workers.

We are also providing the necessary funding for our ambulance services to deliver more paramedics, more ambulances and new ambulance stations. Of course, this is in stark contrast to when the petition was tabled, when:

the previous Liberal government cut $13 million in funding to SAAS in its first two years, according to the Productivity Commission;

the 90^th percentile ambulance response deteriorated to 71 minutes—the worst in the nation by far; and

only one out of three ambulances turned up on time, potentially risking the lives of thousands of South Australians.

Whereas now there is a two-thirds chance of that priority ambulance arriving on time rather than a two-thirds chance of it arriving late. This translates into thousands more patients every month receiving their ambulance on time.

Of course, we know that there is more work to do, and we will continue to deliver increased capacity in our health system to meet demand, ease pressure on our hospitals and reduce ramping. I can advise that many of the committee's recommendations are already in place or have been completed, with work progressing on others. This government will always back our hardworking ambos, along with our doctors and nurses, and we will keep investing in building a bigger health system.