Ambulance union officials to seek orders from Tribunal over ramping
Chronic ramping has prompted the Ambulance Employees Association to take its case to the Employment Tribunal — the government says it is already working on it.
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The ambulance union will take the State Government to the Employment Tribunal as chronic ramping continues to clog emergency departments and prevent crews from attending other jobs.
Ambulance Employees Association of SA senior industrial officer Rob Leaney said officers were being treated like “expendable cannon fodder” as ramping becomes the new normal at Adelaide’s public hospitals.
While record ramping rates in August and September eased slightly with warmer weather in October, The Advertiser revealed that rates rose again in November – traditionally a relatively quiet month after the respiratory illnesses usually experienced during winter.
The Government has introduced a series of programs to try to ease pressure, ranging from GP-led Priority Care Centres for some non-life threatening conditions to a greater emphasis on home care to avoid the need for hospital transfers.
However, the union says more ambulances, doctors and nurses are needed. As well as legal action, the union has a petition calling for funding to respond to escalating demand and for the Government to eradicate ramping by “whatever means necessary”.
Three patients have died this year while ramped. Mr Leaney said staff were ending up exhausted from long shifts.
He warned that patients were at increased risk of avoidable death because of delays in responses caused by ambulances being stuck in hospital car parks.
“On behalf of our members and the SA community, the AEA will take these important issues to the Employment Tribunal, in an arbitration court case commencing on February 3, in an attempt to win orders which will greatly improve the situation in a meaningful and sustainable way,” he said.
“This will ensure that our members do not continue to be used as some kind of expendable cannon fodder and that the community of SA do not continue to be at increasing risk.”
He claimed Government efforts to deal with the issue so far was just “fiddling around the edges and reducing hospital staffing levels while the system implodes”. Ambulances were ramping at 2.30pm yesterday while four major hospitals were on the over capacity ED Code White alert, including Flinders Medical Centre, where its 53-capacity ED was treating 63 patients.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton welcomed the union move, saying 2019 has been the worst year for ramping on record.
“Ambulance ramping has doubled since the Liberals came to office with patients paying the price,” he said.
“This year ambulance ramping went from something that happened on bad days, to almost every day. “This year there’s been at least three deaths of patients following periods of being ramped outside hospitals. If that’s not a wake up call for the government, what is?”
Treasurer Rob Lucas said the Government greatly valued and respected paramedics and the important work they do.
“However, claims by AEA union bosses that more paramedics will resolve hospital ramping issues are not supported by the facts,” he said.
“Since early 2017, about 160 additional (full time equivalent) staff have been engaged in the SA Ambulance Service – a 10 per cent increase in overall staffing numbers.
“This shows ramping – an issue we inherited from Labor ... will not be resolved by engaging even more staff.”
He said efforts to address ramping included reactivating the Repat and the Southern Health Expansion plan to double ED capacity at Flinders Medical Centre.