Claims of ramping related deaths referred to independent review

The Advertiser’s revelation of claims ramping figures are being fudged and patients are being leapfrogged in waiting rooms will be probed by an independent review.

An independent review will investigate bombshell claims patients “are dying” in hospital waiting rooms after being leapfrogged by less sick ambulance arrivals to cut ramping statistics.

Health Minister Chris Picton ordered the inquiry after The Advertiser revealed doctors’ concerns the triage system of giving priority to the most sick was being abused by administrators keen to get ambulances off the ramp.

In a sensational allegation SA Salaried Medical Officers Association president Dr David Pope told The Advertiser patients are dying as a result and such deaths “were not uncommon.”

Mr Picton said he was unaware of such claims and has appointed 2009 South Australian of the Year Associate Professor Bill Griggs and Commissioner of the Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health Keith McNeil to investigate.

This should take several weeks and follows calls by Liberal leader David Speirs for an inquiry. Dr Griggs said he was unaware of such allegations until he read The Advertiser.

Mr Picton said the allegations were disturbing but had not been raised with him previously — which Dr Pope disputes.

“We have to see the evidence of what has been alleged,” Mr Picton said.

SA Health boss Dr Robyn Lawrence says patients are always triaged according to clinical need with the sickest patients treated first and “any allegations to the contrary are false.”

However, Dr Pope said staff were being “intimidated” into treating ambulance arrivals as a higher priority than people in waiting rooms, stressing it was a “political decision” to cut ramping figures.

Ramping hit a record 4285 hours in November, and has n­ot fallen below 2500 hours since Labor was elected in March 2022 despite Premier Peter Malinauskas’ core election pledge to “fix” ramping.

Paramedics Ashleigh “Ash the Ambo” Frier and Sian Wanstall with a Labor poster at the polling booth at the March 2022 election.

Dr Pope said ED clinicians are being urged to treat less urgent patients if they arrive by ambulance to cut ramping figures.

“It is happening across all EDs,” he said. “Nursing staff are called and told to unload ambulances over someone who is a higher priority in the waiting room.

“It is distressing for all concerned. If nurses don’t comply they get repeated calls.”

Dr Pope said it “absolutely puts people at risk.”

“Deaths have happened — I can think of two or three cases like that,” he said.

“People who have been waiting many hours in the waiting room, who are time critical, end up having a cardiac arrest and dying. It is not uncommon.”

Dr David Pope, president of the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association. Picture: Sarah Reed

Dr Pope said there was “immense anger” and frustration among clinical staff forced to prioritise less urgent patients so that ramping did not look so bad.

“It undermines our professional duties — in the job we are supposed to be doing we get interference from people who are not in front of the actual patient.

“It compromises care. Prioritising patients according to need is incredibly important, but this is political and it is just awful.

“The triage system is being ignored as hospital managers look at computer screens and direct who should be sent to a cubicle.”

Department for Health and Wellbeing chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence said patients are always triaged according to clinical need with the sickest patients treated first.

Dr Robyn Lawrence ‘said patients are always triaged according to clinical need with the sickest patients treated first.’

“Our policies outline that if a person in the waiting room is the same level of illness as someone on the ramp, we will try to free up the ambulance first, so paramedics can deliver more care in the community,” she said.

“We are completely supportive of clinicians who make difficult decisions in care treatment every day, especially in periods of high demand as we are currently seeing across the network. Any allegations to the contrary are false.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said 150 extra hospital beds are due to open in the next year, easing pressure on the system, and the government is employing more doctors and nurses.

Premier Peter Malinauskas indicated that if a ramped ambulance patient was less sick than someone in the waiting room, but a triple 0 call for a life-or-death situation was taken, an ambulance may be unloaded on the ramp to deal with the call.