South Australia has had its worst delays to date with more than 3,000 hours lost while ambulances waited outside hospitals last month.
Key points:
- Ambulance response times were the worst recorded in the last 12 months
- 3,412 hours per ramp were lost during May
- The state government opens 80 more hospital beds
New data released by the Ambulance Service SA has revealed that ambulances spent 3,412 hours on the ramp during May.
The figure has more than doubled since February, when the former state government highlighted a 47% drop in the ramp since the biggest delays were recorded in October last year.
Statistics also showed that ambulance response times were the worst on record, with only 61 percent of priority calls 1 time-sighted and only 55 percent of two-time-category calls for the last 12 months.
Health Minister Chris Picton said 80 new hospital beds would be opened as part of a “winter demand strategy” to help deal with pressure on the healthcare system.
“South Australia has not had a winter strategy for the last four years,” he said.
“But we think it’s very important to have a winter strategy this year because we know we’re fighting a lot of pressure on our healthcare system for COVID, the flu, other respiratory illnesses, but also the demand. “This is a growing demand.”
Health Minister Chris Picton says additional hospital beds will be available in the coming weeks. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)
Mr Picton said that with more COVID-19 treatments now available through GPs, Royal Adelaide Hospital’s (RAH) COVID Care Clinic would be reduced to a new Acute Assessment Clinic.
“By creating these 12 extra beds in the acute assessment center, this will help keep up the pressure on the emergency department, making sure people can reach out to these specialist surgeons or other doctors inside the hospital. a much easier way, “he said.
“Important [it] it means the ambulance will be released to reach the next urgent case in the community. ”
Beds are expected to be available in the next two weeks.
Picton said eight new traffic beds had been opened at the RAH in recent days for patients being transferred from other hospitals.
“This is another element where these patients were previously hooked up to the emergency department, which also increased the pressure,” he said.
The COVIDKIDS virtual service at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital will be expanded to treat all children with respiratory infections, with the name being changed to the Virtual Kids at Home 24/7 service.
SA Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas overshadowed paramedics on Saturday night. (ABC News.)
The Prime Minister is calling for federal action on the ramp
Today, Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas called on the federal government to play a more important role in addressing growing problems across the country.
He called for changes to national health funding agreements to allow family physician centers to open right next to hospitals in an effort to reduce the number of patients going to the emergency department.
“This is a national crisis and I don’t think just throwing more resources at the state level is enough,” Malinauskas said.
“We are certainly doing that, these are the levers I can control as prime minister, but I also have the responsibility as prime minister to advocate for structural reform.”
Malinauskas spent Saturday night in the back of an ambulance following paramedics to try to understand exactly what pressure is under the health system.
Malinauskas announced a campaign to recruit 350 new paramedics with some apprentices starting this week.
An elderly woman abandoned in the cold considered “a carelessness”
A report on the treatment of a 92-year-old woman who was forced to wait two hours outside a hospital in North Adelaide last month found it “a carelessness” by SA Health.
Maureen Wortley waited an hour for an ambulance at home after suffering a fall before her family was asked to take her to Lyell McEwin Hospital.
Once there, she was forced to wait two hours in a tent outside where it was 12 degrees Celsius because the emergency service was full.
Maureen Wortley waited two hours outside Lyell McEwin Hospital after suffering a fall on Mother’s Day. (Facebook: Craig Csongrady)
In the government-commissioned report, author Christopher Baggoley AO found that no further action was needed, as the hospital had since made changes to prevent a similar event.
“The situation was the result of oversight by the LMHS (Lyell McEwin Hospital) as there were plans to test patients in-house in the heat, but not in the cold,” Baggoley said.
“It is unfortunate that this situation has occurred, and it is reassuring that the NALHN (North Adelaide Local Health Network) executive has acknowledged this oversight and has taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again.
“I don’t think other steps need to be taken, beyond those described above.”