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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-30 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is again to the Premier. What does the Premier say to Glynde resident, Rita, regarding his promise to fix the ramping crisis? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Rita was injured in an accident in the city in mid-March and it took 79 minutes for the ambulance to attend. Rita subsequently spent 3½ hours at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital ramped in an ambulance. At the last election, the Premier committed to fixing the ramping crisis. Yesterday, Rita said, and I quote:

…he became Premier…he said 'I will'. Now that word 'will' means an awful lot to me. He didn't say 'I might'. He didn't say 'perhaps'; he didn't say 'I could'. He said 'I will fix it' and he got into power…that's a promise broken and that's not good enough.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:14): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I am in a position to be able to provide an update to the house regarding Rita's—we are using her first name—circumstances. I say at the top that the government is progressively rolling out an astronomical volume of resources into the health system to address the ramping challenge. We have seen a progressive rolling out of that and I can elaborate on that in a moment.

I would like to thank the Minister for Health, who has been at pains to engage with Rita from the moment she called into ABC radio a few days ago. I know the Minister for Health has made himself available to meet with Rita to ensure that she has the opportunity to be able to meet with senior clinicians within SA Health to be able to discuss her circumstances. I understand that that invitation has not been taken up, which is, of course, Rita's prerogative and her option. Rita has elected to spend time with the Leader of the Opposition, and that, again, is absolutely her prerogative and we respect that. But I make clear that the government and people who are responsible for the delivery of these services remain available to meeting with Rita.

Regarding her circumstances, naturally, I think what is most important is Rita's health. I am very pleased to acknowledge receipt of the advice that I have received that Rita sustained no broken bones and no injuries. I understand that she fell off her seat on a bus and 000 was called. She was triaged by SAAS as being a priority 3 during an 11-minute phone call. An ambulance was dispatched to Rita and was on track, but then that ambulance was rerouted to a priority 1 call.

Subsequently, when the ambulance arrived, Rita was triaged under the Australasian Triage Scale as a category 4 triage patient—for those who might not be aware, category 1 being the most severe level of acuity and category 5 being the lowest; Rita was a category 4. Subsequently, she was in the ambulance, as the Leader of the Opposition referred to, for three hours and 20 minutes. She was seen by a doctor and had blood tests and a series of X-rays, and no broken bones or serious injuries were found. So the good news is that Rita is absolutely fine, on all accounts, and that is a really good outcome. That's a good thing.

When people call 000, often we think of lights and sirens emergencies, but often 000 calls go to the exceptionally low-acuity cases, and they deserve to be attended to as best as possible as well. It is regrettable, no doubt, that Rita was in the ambulance for three hours but, naturally, I think all would accept that in circumstances of no injuries versus an injury, an injury is going to be prioritised, and that's obviously what occurred in this instance.

We would prefer if there was no transfer of care or ramping time elapsed under any circumstances. But the work goes on. Only yesterday, the Minister for Health and I opened up 20 new beds at Flinders as part of 150 new beds opening up this year and another 130 next year, and we are able to report on—I will save my remarks for the moment.

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