South Australia is facing an unprecedented escalation of ambulance ramping, which is of grave concern as we move into winter. Health Minister Chris Picton pointed out that failures in the aged care system are increasing pressure on already overstretched public hospitals. Public health experts are preparing for the worst. The current ramping rates are just 700 to 800 hours lower than last year’s record ramping levels.
In the month of May, ambulances spent an unconscionable 4,791 hours waiting outside public hospitals before discharging patients. This graphic represents a huge leap from the 3,700 hours totaling in April. In fact, it fully tracks the 4,773 hours we posted May 2024. Chris Picton admitted that the state’s public hospitals are experiencing “extreme pressure,” calling emergency talks about ways to address the crisis.
Rising Ramping Rates Raise Alarm
The growing trend of ambulance ramping has local health leaders sounding the alarm all over the state. For example, last month, ramping at the Royal Adelaide Hospital increased by around 500 hours compared to April. This increase made it the third-worst month for ambulance ramping since records started in July 2017.
This has been exacerbated by some worsening ambulance response times. In April, 67.7 percent of priority two call-outs reached the benchmark of 16 minutes. This share fell to a mere 60 percent in May. Paul Ekkelboom, a prominent health advocate, sounded the alarm over the coming winter months. He cautioned that if we don’t act soon, ramping will be even worse than last year’s shocking records.
“If something’s not done dramatically, then I think it’s going to be even worse than what we saw last year, and that’s detrimental to people in the community,” – Paul Ekkelboom.
Government’s Response and Future Plans
Fortunately, the South Australian government is doing something about the increasingly dire situation. They have further committed to design and construct more than 330 additional new hospital beds in Metropolitan Adelaide by 2024-25. The administration has only dedicated $1.9 billion in new funding for health services. They’re pumping $1.7 billion into the next five years to meet the increasing needs of public health infrastructure.
The minister for mental health Chris Picton said work was already in place to improve access to mental health services and deal with workforce shortages. He stated, “We are putting extra into mental health which has been called for for years and years and years. We’ve hired an additional, above attrition 2,800 extra doctors, nurses, paramedics, and allied health professionals.” In addition, he reassured that the government was attuned to that underlying cause of ramping and determined to take steps to prevent it.
“All the measures that we’re putting in place, no-one’s criticising the actual things that we’re doing,” – Mr Picton.
Despite these efforts, challenges persist. Picton raised the alarm on a concerning pattern. Patients are stuck in hospitals longer than they need to be because there aren’t enough federally subsidized aged-care beds.
“But we’ve got people stuck in hospital that don’t need to be there because they’re waiting for a federal aged-care bed,” – Mr Picton.
Community Concerns and Criticism
As the reality on the ground changes, public outcry increases over the lack of results from government programs. The current administration was heavily criticized by opposition leader Ashton Hurn. He even accused them of violating their election commitment to solve the ramping problems, The Age reported. Not surprising, considering Hurn’s observation that the government is often most effective when their progress is least visible three-quarters of the way through their term.
“Labor are now three quarters of the way through their term in office and we’re yet to see any green shoots when it comes to delivering on their number-one election promise which was to fix ramping,” – Ashton Hurn.
Public health services are about to experience an explosion in demand, increasing by more than 4.5 percent between 2024-25. That growth will place even greater stress on an already compromised healthcare system. Emergency cases are especially at risk, with recent reports of patients dying after long waits to be admitted.
“You’ve got emergency cases which are waiting two, three hours on a ramp — more recently we’ve had one that’s actually gone into cardiac arrest on the ramp while waiting to get in,” – Paul Ekkelboom.
