SA Ambulance Service

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:58): 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. I. PNEVMATIKOS: At 6.25pm on Monday night, SA Ambulance reported a priority 1 patient left uncovered in the community. At 7.40pm on Monday night, SA Ambulance reported priority 2 life-threatening cases were left uncovered in the Adelaide Hills. My question to the minister is:

1. Why was a South Australian in cardiac arrest left with no ambulance available to attend on Monday night?

2. Is it acceptable that ambulances were being sent from the city on Monday night to attend to call-outs in the Adelaide Hills?

3. How many hours were ambulances ramped in August and September?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:59): I thank the honourable member for her question. On Monday 10 October 2021, the Ambulance Employees Association asserted that a priority 1 SA Ambulance case was left uncovered in the community with no immediate ambulance to send while another priority 1 patient was in cardiac arrest.

I can confirm that the Ambulance Service declared an OpStat White at 6.25 on 11 October that allows short-term measures to be made to enable SAAS to meet demand. It is interesting the time of day: 6.25 is that early evening part of the SAAS day where a significant number of crews are changing shifts. The Hon. Rob Lucas has been pursuing with the Ambulance Employees Association improvement in rosters, which I believe will have long-term benefits not only to the effectiveness of the Ambulance Service—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister is answering the question.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Ambulance Service is working with its workforce to have rosters which not only better meet the demand patterns of particularly the Adelaide community but also provide significant benefits to the workers. I was only talking to an ambulance officer yesterday who said that, when he first joined the Ambulance Service, he started with 14-hour shifts. My understanding is that that is the evening component of a 10-hour/14-hour blended shift—in other words, he would do 10 hours for his day shifts and 14 hours for his night shifts—and he said what a fatigue challenge that was.

The Hon. Rob Lucas is working with the Ambulance Employees Association for roster reform that will see a significant number of workers being given the opportunity to work 10 or 10½ hour shifts I understand is the new model, rather than 12 hours. It was members of this government who helped initiate the occupational safety and—I always have trouble with the name of that one. The President I know has served on that committee and is better at remembering the name than I am. Certainly, there was a parliamentary committee of this parliament that looked at health workforce fatigue, and rosters that are not better suited to fatigue management and work/life balance, which I think are a significant historical issue that the health service has had to deal with.

I was making the point that certainly early evening roster changes can undermine the opportunity of the Ambulance Service to respond to cases. SAAS was experiencing a high number of calls in the southern suburbs, which was combined with a backlog of emergency cases in Adelaide. All cases raised by the AEA have been reviewed by SAAS, and I am advised that any suggestion that a patient was in cardiac arrest is not correct. Paramedics were dispatched to both patients as soon as possible, and both patients were, I understand, transported to an emergency department in a stable condition.