Leaked: The true extent of ambulance ramping revealed in leaked documents

Michelle Viney says her son Jayden died while waiting for an ambulance as leaked documents reveal more failures and the extent of ramping.

A grieving mother has told how her 26-year-old son died while waiting what she says was too long for an ambulance to arrive.

It comes as leaked statistics reveal almost 65 per cent of ambulances have been unable to transfer their patients to Flinders Medical Centre’s emergency department within 30 minutes to comply with new legal directions aimed at stopping ramping.

Michelle Viney, says her son Jayden Holberton, 26, of Christie Downs, died on September 16 after paramedics took 30 minutes to arrive to at his house, despite Mr Holberton living just three minutes away from an ambulance station. While Ms Viney said she had the “utmost respect” for paramedics, more needed to be done to address ramping.

Ms Viney said by the time paramedics arrived, her son had become unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

Michelle Viney’s son Jayden Holberton died while waiting for an ambulance. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

She says it took ambulance officers about 30 minutes to arrive, but the SA Ambulance Service says paramedics arrived faster than the target response time of 16 minutes.

She said Jayden’s girlfriend called an ambulance for her son, who had a heart condition, when he complained of pain in his arm and chest. The girlfriend then called Ms Viney.

“I could hear him crying out in pain in the background,” she said.

By the time an ambulance arrived Jayden had become unresponsive and was not breathing.

“He basically died as they got there and they couldn’t bring him back to us,” she said.

Ms Viney said her “happy, bubbly (and) loyal” son died from a failing heart condition.

She acknowledged Jayden’s death may or may not have been prevented if an ambulance had arrived sooner, but she would never know.

“He should not have had to wait for 30 minutes to get an ambulance to try and save his life,” she said.

An SA Ambulance Service spokeswoman said Jayden’s case was triaged as a priority two case and paramedics arrived on the scene faster than the target response time of 16 minutes.

“SAAS, as would be expected, has reviewed this case and confirms that triage, response and treatment were appropriate,” she said.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to Mrs Viney for the tragic loss of her son.”

The Opposition has obtained figures that show an average of only 36.5 per cent of ambulances at the Flinders Medical Centre managed to transfer their patients within the 30-minute timeframe between December 1 and 7, inclusive.

During this time, the daily percentage of ambulances that completed transfers between the specified time ranged from 25 per cent to 45.8 per cent.

The Advertiser last month reported that SA Health chief executive Dr Chris McGowan had issued extraordinary legal directions to tackle ramping.

Ambulance Ramping at Flinders Medical Centre on September 16. Picture: Ambulance Employees Association

Among the directions was an order that 75 per cent of patients in ambulances must be transferred to EDs within 30 minutes of arrival.

The executive power that enables legal directions to be made has rarely been used but Dr McGowan said at the time he believed the orders had the potential to turn 392 extra beds under Covid-19 plans “into the equivalent of 1000”.

The legal order applied to Local Health Network boards then to their chief executives and clinical department heads.

There is no financial penalty for failure, however they face the sack if they do not comply.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said the legal direction had failed.

“Indeed, no legal direction can address a fundamental lack of resourcing, which is the root cause of the state’s ramping crisis,” he said.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said there had been “significant improvements” in the time ambulances were spending on the ramp in recent weeks.

“We are upgrading every suburban hospital and expanding almost every metropolitan ED, as well as several peri-urban EDs,” he said.

“In addition, we are delivering a massive 392-bed capacity expansion as part of our Covid-ready plan, and Local Health Networks are already reporting positive impacts from these beds coming online.”

Mr Wade said the government was also hiring an extra 74 full-time equivalent ambulance officers, doubling the intake for paramedics to 96 interns and hiring more Triple Zero call takers.

SA president of the Ambulance Employees Association Leah Watkins has previously raised concerns about the directions, saying she didn’t believe the time frames were achievable and more resources were needed.

The SA Salaried Medical Officers Association warned the directions “will result in unsafe care of patients by overriding clinical priorities needed for safe and effective care”.