Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:11): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier given up on his promise to fix ramping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: At the 2022 state election, Labor promised South Australians they would fix the ramping crisis. Last month it delivered the 36^th worst month of ramping in South Australia's history. Paramedics and patients spent 4,791 hours ramped at our public hospitals in May; it was the third worst month of ramping hours in South Australia since records began.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:11): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The government remains as dedicated as ever to tackling the challenges that we see within our public hospital system. Only on the weekend, in fact, I had the pleasure of being able to join some incredible people at Hampstead with the health minister. At Hampstead we now have over 70 beds open that are effectively new beds to the system that are available for people who we seek to transition out of public hospital beds, who do not need to be there.

More specifically, they are effectively people who are ready to be discharged from hospital who require an aged-care bed and can't get access to one because the aged-care system is breaking down across the country. As it stands today, somewhere in the order of 240 people are in our hospital beds throughout the state—and that is a lot. That is the equivalent of a Modbury Hospital I think, in its own right. That is 240 people who occupy hospital beds, who are ready to be discharged and who will receive better quality care given their circumstances outside of the hospital system than within it.

But we've got this massive challenge that as the state government continues to open dozens and dozens and dozens of beds into the system, as we have funded and fully committed, as we continue that effort and it continues to roll out over the years ahead, we are seeing ever-increasing demands being placed on the system by virtue of people not getting access—it is not an issue so much of a lack of access to the system but a lack of ability to be able to get out of the system once they are in it, and that is an exceptionally complex challenge that we continued to elevate on the weekend.

At the official opening of those 70 beds—which I will come back to in a second—we also put on the table to the commonwealth 10 constructive suggestions, to the Hon. Mark Butler as the health minister, things that can be done, some of which in relatively short time that would make a big difference.

If those 200 plus people weren't in our public hospital system, bearing in mind that they effectively weren't only a few years ago, we would see a ramping collapse, because you would have 200 beds flowing through the system. That is a massive game change, which is why we committed so many extra beds at the last election.

In terms of those beds that are coming and have been invested in, critically, we are nation-leading in our ability to recruit people to do that work. It would stun people to know that at the last election we committed to 100 extra doctors in the system. Last year, we recruited over 300 doctors in one year alone over and above attrition. We increased the public hospital system by 300 extra doctors in one year alone—triple the election commitment in one year. I think we are close to 600 doctors, 600 extra doctors in the system now versus what was the case when we were elected.

I got to see some incredible people in geriatrics. There was a geriatrician with us on the weekend at Hampstead. It struck me that there was one prevailing truth that cannot be escaped in regard to what we saw on the weekend at Hampstead, and that is that, if not for the election of this government, that was going to be sold. Hampstead was set to be sold by those opposite. That was their policy. Their policy was to sell off public hospital assets: our policy is investment. Could you imagine where we would be now if those opposite were able to sell that facility? We would have yet more pressure on the system than was otherwise the case. So we maintain our effort, we are steadfast in our policy commitment, and that is something that South Australians can see.