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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-29 Daily Xml
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Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:53): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding ambulance response times.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS: The Ambulance Employees Association has reported that at 10pm last night a patient called 000 for an ambulance at McLaren Vale due to struggling to breathe. However, there was no ambulance to send for 23 minutes, significantly delaying the care for the patient. The Ambulance Employees Association has said, 'More lives will be lost if the government continues to sit and do nothing.' Will the minister respond to this concerning case and outline whether he will now take any action to address the ramping and ambulance delay crisis; if so, what nature of action will be taken?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for the question. I haven't been briefed on the particular case, but I am happy to assume the facts as presented are correct. The description of the situation, it being a person struggling to breathe, would, I presume, be a category 2 case in the Ambulance Service, which is potentially life threatening, where we seek to have a response time of 16 minutes.

Obviously, 23 minutes is outside that response time, but I am advised that last night around 75 per cent of priority 2 cases in the metropolitan area were responded to within the target response time of 16 minutes. Whilst SAAS do an incredible job, target response times are not met in every case; they never have been.

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