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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. When will the Premier fix ramping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: South Australians have endured the worst ramping in the state's history under the Malinauskas Labor government. Just last month, ambulances spent 2,972 hours ramped, an increase from the previous months and double what it was before the 2022 state election, when Labor promised it would fix ramping.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:09): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, notwithstanding the fact, I think, that some interpretations of his facts aren't strictly accurate. I am happy to report that as of yesterday we are able to update the people of South Australia with a bit more detail in respect of the performance of the state government in the context of the election commitment that we made. As of last week, 70 per cent of all P1 call-outs for the South Australian Ambulance Service were met on time. Month to date, that figure is 70.6 per cent. The same time last year—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that figure was 45.2 per cent. In respect of P2 call-outs, month to date figures have that operating at 55 per cent in comparison to 34.7 per cent at the same time last year. So, just to put that in some real-world context, we know that at the time of the state election last year a lights and sirens emergency P2 call-out. which requires ideally a response time of 16 minutes—

The Hon. C.J. Picton interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: P2 is 16 minutes. We know that under the former government that response rate was operating at around about 33 per cent: so on two out of three occasions when a South Australian picked up the phone and called 000 on behalf of a loved one for a lights and sirens emergency the ambo rolled up late—the ambo rolled up late. Now we have been able to dramatically improve that situation so that the ambulances at increasing rates are starting to rollup on time, and that is also true for the priority 1 rates. We have been able to achieve—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —this because the government has very deliberately made the necessary policy decisions that have been required—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —to be able to improve the performance of the hospital system. We still see room for improvement, which is why just this morning the Treasurer and the health minister and I were able to announce yet more funding allocated towards the removal of bed block in the system. Yesterday, we were at the Royal Adelaide Hospital announcing in excess of an additional $60 million towards more substantial resourcing on weekends to alleviate the fact that Mondays are perennially the worst day of the week, on the back of the fact that we don't see the same discharge rates on weekends that we see ordinarily.

To put it a bit more specifically, discharge rates from our public hospital system fall to the tune of 40 per cent over the course of the weekend, simply because we don't see the same level of resources operating in the health system on the weekend. So we have made a decision to allocate a substantial pool of funding to address that challenge because it is a priority for the government. But we made clear at the election time and time again, to the extent that it was criticised by those opposite, that we had a plan to fix the ramping crisis to see ambulances rolling up on time. Thankfully—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —more and more, week by week, month by month, ambulances are starting to roll up on time in South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and fixing what was delivered by those opposite.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I have no doubt that there are South Australians who are alive today as a result of the measures that we are implementing.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: But you said you'd fix ramping.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Elder is warned, the member for Hartley is warned and the member for Schubert is on one warning and also seeking the call.

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