Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: In response to a recent question about reporting of daily ramping statistics and how that worked in the chain of command, the Chief Executive of the SA Ambulance Service said, and I quote, 'We do, Health do, the LHNs do' and, 'They are distributed across the heath system' and, 'They are sent out through Health, so I guess each part of Health does what it needs to do with that data.' That was in relation to daily reports of ramping statistics.

When asked about whether there was any operational reason why the statistics can't be released immediately, the Chief Executive of the South Australian Ambulance Service said, and I quote, 'Not from an ambulance point of view, no.' My questions to the minister are:

1. With the results of ambulance ramping known on a daily basis and being reported up the chain, why are they not released on a regular basis?

2. Why are they not even released monthly?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his question. It would be fair to say that every day in the health system SA Health and its various entities produce mountains of data—mountains—and we don't release it all, but certainly I don't disagree with the honourable member. The public is entitled to a steady flow of information—periodical information and real-time information—in terms of the operation of the health system. That's exactly why we run a series of dashboards that provide real-time information. If the honourable member was wanting real-time information about the Ambulance Service, I would suggest he have a look at the Ambulance Service dashboard.