Ambulance Union says another death at Flinders Medical Centre is due to ramping
A third patient in three months has died after being ramped – but the Health Minister says it’s “simplistic and playing on fear” to blame ramping for every death.
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- September: Flinders patient died after an hour in ambulance
- October: RAH patient died after 42 minutes ‘stuck on ramp’
Another patient has died after being ramped at a South Australian hospital.
The Ambulance Employees Association took to social media on Sunday afternoon, claiming a man in his early 80s died on Friday afternoon after being ramped at Flinders Medical Centre for more than two hours.
Opposition spokesman Chris Picton confirmed the death with clinicians, saying the man lost his pulse after the ambulance he was in was ramped for more than two hours. He died when taken into hospital.
But Health Minister Stephen Wade, who expressed his condolences to the family, said “to say that every death following ambulance ramping is caused by ramping is simplistic and playing on fear”.
“Deteriorating patients are transferred to resuscitation from throughout the area – ambulances, the waiting room and treatment bays within the ED (emergency department),” he said.
“Ambulance ramping is a risk to patients and we are working hard to eliminate it.”
He confirmed the male patient was taken to the resuscitation area after his condition deteriorated.
When contacted by The Advertiser on Sunday evening, SA Ambulance Service did not dispute the claim, but said the patient was ramped for 90 minutes prior to entering the hospital.
It would not comment further on the matter.
AEA secretary Phil Palmer said the latest death was “the price of the government ineffective reaction” to a growing ramping “crisis”.
“The patient should have been inside ED for the best chance of survival, but was stuck in the queue,” he said.
“No amount of spin, minimising or fudging the facts can change the fact that this crisis is a
risk to patients on the ramp and in the community.
“Government bragging about a reduction in ramping is trying to make strawberry jam out of cow manure.”
It is not clear if the patient died in the ambulance or later after entering the hospital.
The union also released images of an empty ward at the Royal Adelaide Hospital being closed off with screens despite 13 patients have been waiting for a bed for more than 24 hours.
Earlier Mr Wade told ABC radio that SA hospitals have been “less busy” after the winter season but admitted Flinders Medical Centre was facing “ongoing pressures”.
“The south is clearly a pressure point in the system...that’s why we’re putting additional capacity in the south,” he said.
After an October incident, in which a woman died after being ramped at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 42 minutes, Mr Wade said ramping was “completely unacceptable”.
Mr Picton said closing beds and cutting medical staff had made ramping worse after in September an elderly woman died waiting for more than an hour for treatment in an ambulance at Flinders Medical Centre.
“We are clearly in the midst of a ramping crisis, with record levels of ramping and now tragically a third death of a patient while ramped,” Mr Picton said.
“The Liberals must reverse their bed closures and abandon plans to cut doctors and nurses.”
On Twitter, Mr Palmer said he was “sad and angry” that another patient had died after being ramped.
“Despite what (SA Health chief executive Christopher McGowan) says, there is a better chance of surviving a critical health event inside (the emergency department), not waiting outside,” he wrote.