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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-11 Daily Xml
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Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:25): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: Yesterday, the daughter of Agatha, Annalisa, phoned ABC radio to reveal her mother was, for the second time in the past month, ramped outside the emergency department. Annalisa said:

She's not doing very well, she says she's had enough and she just wants to die because she's got to wait in an ambulance…

What is it going to take for them to actually do something about it and open up some more beds?

The Premier told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning:

What I can say though is that everybody is triaged, and if there was a situation where that patient needed to be seen more urgently, then that's exactly and precisely what would have happened.

My questions to the minister are: can the minister explain why 93-year-old Agatha was left to wait three hours on a ramp at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and does the minister stand by the Premier's response to Annalisa's case that if she needed to be seen more urgently she would have been?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:26): SA Health and I apologise unreservedly to the patient and her family for what was clearly a deeply distressing experience yesterday. The Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer also apologises on behalf of the network for the experience.

I am advised that at the time of her presentation to the Royal Adelaide Hospital approximately 80 patients were present in the emergency department. This surge of patients also included several urgent walk-in cases, some of which required resuscitation and catheterisation lab intervention. There were several stroke patients and a patient suffering from an aneurysm. Notwithstanding this surge, I understand the anger and concerns expressed by the patient's family, and I share those concerns.

I think it is important to appreciate that a number of the government's initiatives will significantly benefit older South Australians who need urgent care. The priority care centres in particular are, in my view, particularly well suited to older South Australians, because they are GP practices with emergency nurse support and they are well placed to deal with a range of conditions that older South Australians may need care for.

It has certainly been pleasing in recent weeks to see some very strong attendances at the priority care centres, and SA Health is actively working to enhance the model and increase the uptake, particularly in terms of the guidance of ambulances to that service, where it's clinically appropriate.

There has been an increase in chronic patients, who would often be older patients, and certainly the health system is seeking to develop critical care services so that more people can get the urgent care they need in the community. It is often much better for the patient and it helps ease pressure on our emergency departments.

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