SA Ambulance sees jump in its Code Red alerts
There’s been a sharp rise in the number of alerts indicating patient safety is directly at risk unless extra ambulance resources are made available, also known as a Code Red.
SA News
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SA Ambulance Service grappled last year with a steep rise in Code Red alerts — where patient safety is directly affected unless extra resources are allocated — while the more severe Code White situations remained steady.
Data obtained by The Advertiser shows there were 35 Code Red situations in the nine months from April to December 2018.
This almost doubled to 69 in the first 10 months of 2019.
There were seven, followed by eight, Code Whites in the corresponding periods, and none of the highest level Code Black in either period.
SAAS chief ecxecuftive David Place said the codes are operational tools to help manage resources and the services remains focused on delving high quality, safe patient care.
“Any patient requiring urgent emergency care will be seen to by SAAS’ highly skilled staff, regardless of the OPSTAT code,” he said.
SAAS has five OPSTAT (operational status) levels decided by the duty manager rather than a computer to help manage resources.
The third highest level, Red, indicates “levels of demand are having a sustained impact on SAAS ability to deliver safe, quality patient services”, and that “Patient safety is directly affected”.
The next level, White, indicates “Operational capacity, capability and/or resources are insufficient to maintain effective service delivery for high acuity cases”.
Mr Place said it is vital that at any given time SAAS has a plan to ensure the ongoing delivery of safe patient care and transport to those who need it most.
“OPSTAT is tool which allows SAAS be able to continue to function safely and effectively regardless of increased or anticipated pressures,” he said.
“It ensures the service is deploying and rostering the right resources.
“Changes to OPSTAT level are not an indication of stress in the system, rather a management tool to enable the most appropriate resources to be rostered in the right places.”
Mr Place said SAAS is being more proactive in its ability to respond to, and change its OPSTAT level, to deliver efficiency and effectiveness.
He noted the past six months have seen a horror bushfire season, the busy festive and festival period then the coronavirus pandemic.
“Through this period, our people and our management tools have enabled us to continue to deliver an efficient and effective service for South Australia,” he said.
“In the coming months, we will continue to make changes to how we do things – there is no doubt these events have caused us to take out valuable learnings on how we can respond and manage our resources better.”
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said: “Each one of these Code Red events is dangerous and had an impact upon safe patient care. The increase in Code Red events is further evidence of the strain our hard working paramedics have been under.
“The Government must ensure the pre-pandemic cuts to beds, doctors and nurses that were proposed do not return – otherwise these dangerous Code Red events will become even more common.