Covid positive patients waited hours to be hospitalised, ramped in ambulances outside: union

One state’s health system is under fire over concerns a dramatic increase in Covid cases has put extreme pressure on ambulances.

A public health crisis has spread to critical ambulance shortages, with Covid-positive patients bundled into the same vehicles and forced to wait hours for hospital treatment.

According to the Ambulance Employees Associations' (AEA), a positive case deemed life threatening needed to wait three hours for an ambulance to arrive.

Another ambulance was also sent to three unwell Covid patients with no backup.

Those paramedics used almost all of the available oxygen, ran out of medications and, despite calling for intensive care backup, there was none available.

It resulted in Covid patients being transported in the same ambulance and then being ramped for 35 minutes.

A separate crew managed to arrive and take the third case to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).

Covid-19 patients were forced to ramp outside the RAH overnight, while one positive person waited three hours for an ambulance. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

AEA Secretary Leah Watkins said the state’s health care system was “not coping”.

“On top of the general ambulance workload that seems to be increasing unabated, now we layer on top of that the Covid workload that’s starting to flow through as borders opened up,” she told ABC Radio on Thursday.

“For most of last night there were 15 life-threatening emergencies uncovered.

“As soon as one was dispatched, another would come in so the co-ordinators were under incredible pressure with 15 cases waiting at any one time.

“Clearly the hospital system and ambulance system are not prepared for this level of Covid patients.”

Premier Steven Marshall said the state had significantly increased resources before opening its borders.

He said of the four Covid patients that were taken to the RAH, three of them were from the same family so it was “perfectly acceptable” for them to travel together.

“They were triaged and treated in the clinically appropriate time frame,” Mr Marshall said.

“Our clinicians treat people in accordance to their acuity and the advice I received was that's exactly what’s happened.”

A SA Health spokesperson said no Covid patients were ramped at the hospital overnight.

“The Covid patient procedures were all followed correctly and all Covid patients were taken through the dedicated Covid entrance to the hospital,” they said.

“No one was exposed to any additional risk of COVID-19 through the transfer of care process.”

AEA Secretary Leah Watkins said the state’s health care system was “not coping”. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

But it’s not the first time Covid patients have been ramped, according to the AEA.

Last week it was revealed at least two patients were forced to wait in the back of ambulances for about an hour and a half, ramped outside the RAH.

There was also internal ramping on December 18, when paramedics were unable to transfer patients due to internal delays.

The AMA said patients’ conditions varied from severe shortness of breath and chest pain.

Following that incident, Ms Watkins said paramedics needed to evacuate the ambulances because it was “too dangerous” to treat highly infectious patients in the enclosed space.

She said there were only a handful of unwell Covid-19 patients that needed to be hospitalised and because the RAH was the dedicated hospital for the virus, it should have been able to accommodate the patients.

“No patient should be ramped, but the ramping of Covid-positive patients in the back of ambulances is completely unsafe and unacceptable,” Ms Watkins said.

“The risks to our members are dramatically increased due to the poor ventilation and enclosed spaces.”

It’s not the first time the AEA has revealed a Covid patient was ramped, with the same thing happening last week. Picture: Supplied

Originally published as Covid positive patients waited hours to be hospitalised, ramped in ambulances outside: union