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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-17 Daily Xml
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Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): 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 Australian patients and paramedics spent 3,290 hours stuck on the ramp in September 2023, which is more than 400 hours worse than the worst month under the former Liberal government.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:13): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Since the parliament last met, if my dates are right, the September ramping data was released. We release our ramping data on a monthly basis. We don't hide it. We don't seek to fail to disclose it. We have a very different approach to what the shadow minister for health undertook when she was advising the former Premier about ramping data. We put it out in a monthly organised way.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We are willing to be transparent about this data.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Schubert!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: When we released the data only a couple of weeks ago for September, we were pleased—in a modest way, we are pleased about the fact that there has been an improvement in the September data. Throughout the course of this winter, we saw improvement on last year.

Mrs Hurn: That was the worst year on record.

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Last year was a particularly difficult year, that is absolutely true, when it comes to ramping data.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Last year was challenged by the fact that it was the first time in the history of the state that we had flu and COVID in the state at the same time, dealing with a legacy of cuts that were made by the former government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The former government, in their wisdom, decided to make our health staff redundant during the course of a global pandemic. We rejected that policy and we went to the election with a different policy, and that is to invest in more beds and more people, so we are opening a lot more beds and we are recruiting a lot more nurses and doctors to the hospital system. That has manifested itself in an improvement on the statistics this year, with May better than May last year, April better than April last year, June, July—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —August and September all being true. What we have been clear about is the need for more improvement and we are actively delivering on that. In respect of the other key metric outside of ramping hours itself and that of course is ambulance response times, which we were crystal clear about—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —in multiple forums in the lead-up to the election that we were very keen—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Don't talk about ramping!

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hartley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —to make sure we improve ambulance response time data, again that has continued to improve as well.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Now the opposition interject and the opposition would seek to imply that ambulance response times might not matter. Well, they matter to us.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: When people call 000, they want to know that there's a chance the ambo might roll up on time. We know when those opposite were in charge there was a two in three chance they were going to roll up late.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Well, now, as a result of the policies that we have implemented, the opening up of hundreds of beds—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the recruitment of hundreds of nurses—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and over a hundred extra ambos already on the books as a result of our policies, ambulances are now rolling up on time at a far greater level than was the case when the former mob were in charge. So it's worthwhile South Australians being conscious of the fact that had we not had a change in government, then South Australians would have been left in peril on two out of three occasions, waiting for their ambulance to roll up on time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Well, now they are rolling up on time and that means lives are being saved, which is exactly what our health workers want to deliver.

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the leader, the member for Morialta and the member for Chaffey are warned.

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