Premier apologises for Covid hotline closure after triple-0 is flooded with calls during ‘worst night in history’ for ambos

The Premier has ordered the Covid hotline remain open 24/7 after triple-0 was flooded with calls on Thursday night, leading to seven-hour waits for an ambulance.

The state’s ambulance union is calling for urgent action after they claimed dozens of patients waited hours for help in “the worst night in history” for response times.

The Ambulance Employees Association SA president Leah Watkins said a record 42 patients were left uncovered after they had called for help on Thursday night.

“The latest highest number of cases pending no ambulance to send we’d experienced has been in the last few days and it was 30, and we’ve escalated to 42,” Ms Watkins said.

“Last night was the worst night in history for SA Ambulance,” she said on Friday.

The patients waiting included one person who was unconscious and had collapsed, who waited four hours, and a person who had heart problems who waited five-and-a-half hours, she said.

“There were several that had waited over five hours, and that was at 7.45pm, one that had waited over seven hours at that point,” Ms Watkins said.

Ramping at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in October.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said the wait times were likely due to an increase in calls following the thousands of Rapid Antigen Tests supplied in SA on Thursday.

“A significant number of banked calls last night were Covid-positive people with mild or moderate symptoms,” he said.

“Advice from SAAS is that no P1 cases were left pending at all, and the number of P2 cases pending had reduced significantly by midnight.”

Premier Steven Marshall apologised to those left waiting and said it was a mistake to close the Covid hotline at 8pm on Thursday.

“It is now going to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because people will be receiving their RAT results when they complete them themselves and often they want to be able to get that assurance,” he said.

“The were obviously very frustrated and at times anxious last night when they saw those results and couldn’t get through to the Covid hotline.

“What we saw last night was a very high number of calls to triple-0, most of these were with priority two issues. Many of them were respiratory – we believe this was in line with people getting their rapid antigen test results.”

He reminded people that triple-0 was for emergencies.

A statement from the SA Ambulance Service said it was undoubtedly facing unprecedented demand for ambulance services.

“But we must be clear to the South Australian public that at all times yesterday (Thursday) we continued to ensure our most urgent triple-0 calls were prioritised and life threatening cases responded to,” the statement said.

Ms Watkins requested an urgent meeting with Mr Marshall, with other health unions including the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association regarding the “current health crisis”.

8:30pm: Request sent out to all off duty SAAS staff and Volunteers across the state, urgently requesting to come in for overtime.
9pm: Still 42 uncovered life threatening emergencies - this is not a surge.
#SAIsDyingForMoreAmbos#saparlipic.twitter.com/Q6vysCX0gT

— Ambulance Employees Association (SA) (@aeasa1981) January 13, 2022

🚨7:45pm: 42 life threatening emergencies currently uncovered across Adelaide with no ambulance to send. SAAS instigating capacity management measures by no longer responding to urgent cases, only life threatening. Non-emergency crews responding to life threat cases. #saparli

— Ambulance Employees Association (SA) (@aeasa1981) January 13, 2022