SA Ambulance Service risk report raises patient death potential owing to lack of funding, resources for paramedics
A report has warned of potential patient death due to the “deteriorating” ability of the SA’s ambulance service as more images emerge of ramping at an Adelaide hospital.
SA News
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A leaked report warned of potential patient death due to a “deteriorating” ability of the state’s ambulance service to meet demand, the revelations coming as ambulances again ramped outside a major Adelaide hospital.
The State Opposition has obtained an internal SA Ambulance Service risk analysis detailing “high level” patient risks due to ramping and an “inability” of paramedics to meet increased demand for emergency and “unscheduled” health services.
The report, dated January 2, 2020, cites an inability to secure funding to increase resources, insufficient resourcing to meet demand and ineffective patient flow among risks raising potential for increased “morbidity and mortality” due to “declining response times”.
“Increasing demand on ambulance services and increased time to transfer patients to Emergency Departments have contributed to reduced capacity and declining response times for less urgent cases,” the report says.
“(The) Current service delivery model does not meet the increasing healthcare requirements of over 1.6m South Australians.”
The report notes that ramping is the “most significant” issue facing SAAS due to its “direct adverse impact on response capacity and patient safety”.
The document lists 25 consequences of ramping including:
DECLINING response times and failure to meet performance targets for high and low acuity patients.
REDUCED capacity to respond to major, multi-site and/or mass casualty events.
POTENTIAL infection control implications due to infectious patients spending prolonged periods in the confinement of ambulance vehicles.
CLINICIANS having to monitor patients and manage medications for patients “beyond their authority to practice.
Opposition Health spokesman Chris Picton said ambulances waited an average of 76 minutes on the ramp at Flinders Medical Centre yesterday.
He said the leaked report showed in “black and white” that the State Government has known the risks but “done nothing”.
“The ambulance Service are even worried there’s a false perception that ramping isn’t impacting patient safety. That’s a perception cultivated by the government,” he said.
“There were at least three ramping-related deaths at our hospitals last year, and now ramping is reigniting across our hospitals,” he said.
Health Minister Stephen Wade said there was a time when a “a dozen or so ambulances” were at the FMC yesterday but that he was advised that “only three had been there for more than 50 minutes”.
“It’s normally expected it will take at least 30 minutes for ambulances to transfer care into the ED,” he said.
“Yesterday there was a slight surge early afternoon at Flinders Medical Centre, it did not lead to ongoing problems.”
In response to the release of the SAAS risk report, Mr Wade said ramping was bad for patients and staff and that the Government was “determined to eliminate ramping”.
“We are continuing to invest in every major emergency department expansion except for the Royal Adelaide Hospital, we’ve employed more than 100 more ambulance officers since we came to government,” he said.
He said demand on hospitals had “more than recovered” despite a more than 90 per cent drop in flu cases and that COVID had reduced hospital ED capacity.