Premier Steven Marshall defends Adelaide’s ‘worst in nation’ ambo wait times

A new report shows ambulance response times have blown out, but the premier says it’s out of date and there’s been huge investment since then.

More than a third of patients needing emergency care in South Australian hospitals are not being seen on time and ambulance wait times have also ballooned.

A Productivity Commission review of the nation’s health services reveals 63 per cent of critical patients attending SA emergency departments last financial year were seen within clinically acceptable timeframes.

This compares with 68 per cent in 2019/20 and 79 per cent eight years ago. The national average was 71 per cent last financial year.

The premier defended his government’s work to imrpove wait times and said that much had happened since last financial year, which the report was based on.

“Since then we’ve made improvements,” he said.

“We are massively increasing our recruitment of ambulance officers here in SA.

“Last financial year’s performance was unacceptable,. Since then we’ve put in lots of investment and some of those programs are now starting to bear fruit.

“There is still work that needs to be done.

“We want to end ramping in SA, but there’s no simple solution.

“The mess that Labor left the health system in needs time to unwind, it needs time to improve.”

SA Ambulance wait times are the worst in Australia, according to a new report. Picture: Emma Brasier

The number of people attending hospital emergency departments also surged by an extra 45,122 people from 535,453 to 580,575.

Average ambulance response times across SA blew out by 10 minutes to 32.8 minutes, according to the report.

But Adelaide recorded the worst response times of any capital city, with 90 per cent of emergency cases reached in 34.4 minutes, an increase from 20.6 minutes a year earlier.

The state had the second-highest number of ambulance responses per capita with 258.9 ambulance responses per 1000 people, compared to the national average of 202.2 responses.

Ambulance staffing had increased from 1309 to 1345 in 2020/21.

The report, however, found that 85.4 per cent of triple-0 ambulance calls in SA were answered within 10 minutes, the second-best record in the nation behind Tasmania.

SA Health Minister Stephen Wade said Covid had increased demand on public hospitals.

SA Health Minister Stephen Wade said the figures showed why the government had worked to ensure minor health incidents did not drain services.

“As we have said consistently, 2021 saw increased demand right across the country,’’ he said. “To combat this, the government has invested heavily in alternative care pathways for South Australians.”

Patient satisfaction with the SA Ambulance Service remains high in SA, with 96 per cent of respondents either satisfied or very satisfied with the service, down from 99 per cent in 2019/20.

SA spent the most on ambulance services per person of all mainland states and territories but had the second-lowest per capita spending on public hospitals in 2019/20 at $2730 behind Victoria.