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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-18 Daily Xml
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Question Time

SA AMBULANCE SERVICE

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (16:30): I will just get my heart rate back. My question is to the Minister for Health.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr SIBBONS: This is probably a pertinent question. How satisfied are patients with the South Australian Ambulance Service?

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley, you are warned.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (16:30): I am very pleased to be able to say that 98 per cent of emergency and urgent patients who responded to a recent survey indicated that they are either satisfied or very satisfied with the ambulance service that they received in South Australia. Each year patients are surveyed about how satisfied they are with the ambulance services right across Australia. This research is commissioned by the Council of Ambulance Authorities and enables SA Ambulance Service to evaluate its performance according to its patients' experiences and also to measure its approval against other services.

The report details the service quality and satisfaction ratings of ambulance service patients and carers in Australia and, of course, New Zealand. Of 1,476 surveys sent out in South Australia, 624 were returned, which is a response rate of 42 per cent. That is the second-highest response rate around the nation and it contributes to a national average of 34 per cent. Of respondents from South Australia, 78 per cent were patients and 22 per cent were carers; 75 per cent were 60 years or older and 42 per cent were 75 years or older. That reflects the nature of people who use ambulances. There was a relatively balanced survey of men and women across our state.

Ninety-eight per cent of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the care the ambulance paramedics took when attending them. Ninety-seven per cent of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the explanations given by SA ambulance paramedics about what was happening to them and why it was happening. The SA Ambulance Service was one of the three top performers in this area.

Ninety-six per cent of respondents, up from 94 per cent last year, were satisfied or very satisfied with the conditions of the trip when being transported by an ambulance, making the service in South Australia one of the top three performers again in this area.

These are terrific results and I congratulate and thank all the staff of the Ambulance Service in South Australia for the outstanding service they provide to South Australians who are in need. Our ambulance officers deserve thanks not only for saving lives but also for showing care, concern and compassion to South Australians who are critically ill and their family members at obviously difficult times in their lives. I commend their service to the house.

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