Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:53): A further supplementary arising from the original answer: does the minister accept that ramping in hospitals is in any way a possible contributing factor to the cluster of nine deaths?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:54): What a bizarre question. This government had a systemic review that highlighted that ramping is part of the context that undermined clinical judgement and, in doing so, made it less likely for patients to be transported to hospital, and that that led to adverse incidents. I am proud that we are part of a government that is not just willing to look at individual isolated cases but is looking at systemic reform.

It has taken the former Labor government 16 years to corrode and degrade our health system; it is going to take a significant amount of time to fix it, and it certainly won't be fixed by taking individual, isolated, limited views of the problems. We are committed—as we did with EPAS, as we did with EPLIS, as we are doing with the Ambulance Service—to making sure that we take a broad view, a systemic view to fix the problems in the health system.

The PRESIDENT: A further supplementary, Leader of the Opposition?