Top doc claims patients are dying because the government is prioritising ambulance patients to improve ramping stats

As ramping hits record levels, a top doctor claims patients are being left to die while bureaucrats order ambulances to unload less urgent cases to fudge figures.

Patients are dying in hospital waiting rooms while less urgent ambulance arrivals leapfrog the queue to cut the ramping figures, a leading doctor says.

In a sensational allegation SA Salaried Medical Officers Association president Dr David Pope said such deaths “were not uncommon.”

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 a polling booth in the March 2022 election.

Government officials have since claimed that promise was to mean people will have shorter waits to have an ambulance arrive — which has been achieved — rather than ending the queues of ambulances with patients stuck in hospital car parks waiting for room in the emergency department.

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 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.

“There is a moral injury,” he said.

“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.”

Other doctors have contacted The Advertiser to confirm Dr Pope’s claim.

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

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.

“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.”

Speaking on ABC Adelaide radio Premier Peter Malinauskas rejected the suggestion there was political interference to give ramped ambulance patients priority over sicker patients in the waiting room.

He did acknowledge that the triage system includes people who call triple 0 with a life-threatening condition, who may need an ambulance which is ramped in turn creating the need to unload the ambulance so it can be dispatched.

“Just because you happen to be the emergency waiting room doesn’t give you priority over a triple 0 caller at home,” he said.

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.