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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-18 Daily Xml
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Ambulance Ramping

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What action did the minister take to clear the ramp at the Lyell McEwin Hospital yesterday? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: On ABC radio this morning, the ambulance union claimed that there were 14 ambulances ramped at the Lyell Mac, but within the hour of calling the minister it was down to four or five. So, if the minister has a magic wand, why is ramping the worst it has ever been?

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:19): There is absolutely no doubt that none of us on this side—

Mrs Hurn: Who did you call?

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on one warning.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —find the current ramping situation acceptable. We have made no secret about the fact—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have made no secret about the fact that the fact we have seen ramping continue to increase over the past five years has caused significant issues for South Australians, particularly in terms of those who are waiting for an ambulance response when you have ambulances ramped outside of hospitals. Certainly, in my job as a minister—not only has the Premier—

Mrs Hurn: Who did you call?

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for a second time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We are working on the long-term responses in terms of making sure we've got additional beds in our system, the additional doctors and nurses that we need—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —additional ambulances and ambulance officers in our system as well but also, if there are issues that arise, we are certainly raising those with the hospital. Of course, the shadow minister says, 'Who cleared the ramp?' Well, the doctors and nurses cleared the ramp.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: There were a significant number of ambulances at one stage yesterday afternoon at Lyell McEwin Hospital, and the doctors and nurses worked very hard to get that down to a much more reasonable level to make sure that people could get responses in the community. Certainly, I raised that issue with the department and with the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network when it was brought to my attention that that was happening, as you would expect me to.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on two warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: But clearly—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —there are a set of particular issues that are happening at Lyell McEwin Hospital. This is an area where we haven't seen such issues happen previously. One of those issues is in relation to the new emergency department, which was originally promised, as people will recall, back under the Weatherill government back in 2017. That got delayed and delayed. It's still under construction at the moment. It is expected to be complete and open in February next year.

There are issues in terms of how the emergency department is working at the moment because of the design and construction, which has seen half the emergency department open and half of the old emergency department open, which is leading to issues between them. We, of course, as well know that Lyell McEwin Hospital is an increasingly busy hospital, and it doesn't have the back-of-house beds that are needed.

Clearly, the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network had been calling out for some years for additional beds to be built there. That wasn't heeded. We are now building additional beds to be built at that hospital. That project has been funded in the budget: 48 additional beds to provide that back-of-house capacity. The issue in ramping is not just a front-of-house emergency department issue—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —it is right through the hospital, and it is about making sure that people can get the care that they need through the hospital. We are also working to address issues in terms of length of stay of patients.

We have seen some areas of our hospitals see increases in terms of length of stay. That clearly means more pressure on the system, more pressure on access block in the system, and we are working to address those issues, whether it be making sure that people can get the appropriate allied health care they need or whether it's about helping people to get out of hospital—and we have seen significant blockages in terms of NDIS and aged care, for people to get out of hospital into the care they need. We are working with particularly general medicine, where a lot of these issues are, and across all of the hospital network to make that happen.

We are also working at the front end of our hospital network and at the ambulance end to make sure that we can work with aged care, to divert people to virtual care so that they don't need to call an ambulance to begin with. All these issues are being addressed, but obviously this is a very significant issue and it is absolutely the determination of this government to address this problem.

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