Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:51): Today, I want to speak about the critical issue of ambulance ramping in South Australia. It does not matter where you go at the moment or what television channel you watch—you can go to a sporting club, you can go to a pub or, God forbid, you might actually go to a critical ambulance incident or a hospital yourself—you will find out that there is currently a lack of ambulance resources within SA Health to address the critical needs of the community in a suitable time frame. The result of which, I am deeply concerned, could actually lead to someone dying in the back of one of those ambulances while they wait for treatment.

As recently as Monday, a 98-year-old person took a bad fall and required the assistance of an ambulance. The person's case was escalated after three hours because no ambulance was dispatched to their location to treat that 98-year-old person who had fallen and was suffering from their injuries. After the case was upgraded, the 98-year-old person was taken to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and ramped. After receiving no medical attention inside The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the 98 year old was remobiled to the Calvary hospital, but they were refused access.

The 98-year-old patient was then remobiled again and ramped a second time at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The 98-year-old patient was remobiled for a third time and sent to the Modbury Hospital and finally attended to by hospital staff at 8 o'clock that evening. This is undoubtedly a terrible situation. The 98-year-old person would have been suffering from severe trauma and injury from their fall, yet they were taken to four hospitals: they were refused access at one hospital, ramped at two hospitals and waited a total of 10 hours to have their medical needs attended to inside a hospital. That is unacceptable. The minister should hang his head in shame over a result like that.

I have been personally contacted by several very worried constituents who have experienced ramping firsthand at the South Australian metropolitan hospital system. A person named Mark recently contacted my office because his elderly father fell over and suffered severe head trauma, resulting in a painful recovery and several skin grafts to repair the damage from the fall. Severe as his father's fall and head trauma was, Mark and his father had to wait almost four hours in the back of an ambulance at the Flinders hospital before the father could receive medical treatment inside the hospital. After the fall, Mark's father spent a whole week inside the hospital, receiving treatment.

The fact is that Steven Marshall has done a good job at following the advice of Professor Nicola Spurrier and, indeed, other health officials during COVID, but he has been nowhere when it comes to fixing ramping at our major hospitals. When Steven Marshall is not reading from a script he is forced to stand on his own two feet, and he is nowhere to be seen.

Someone needs to step up and fix the issue of ramping. It cannot be continually left alone as we wait and watch dozens of ambulances, and sometimes more than that, waiting outside hospitals while tens of people are not seen every single week. South Australians are dying to get into the back of ambulances, literally, while waiting for admission to hospitals. Mental health patients are waiting without help, and this is adding to the issue of the ramping crisis.

Ramping has worsened under the Marshall government. It has doubled since the Liberals were elected. They are ignoring the pleas from our hardworking paramedics, nurses and doctors by literally blaming them for the crisis that is on their doorstep. If something is not done, more people will die. The Marshall government must fix the ramping crisis, it must meet with the relevant unions and it must solve the issue that is clogging up our hospital system and may literally lead to more deaths.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. D.G.E. Hood): I was loathe to interrupt the member during his matter of interest, but I remind members that we should refer to members of the other place by the seat which they represent and not by their name. Time having expired to make statements on matters of interest, I call on the business of the day.