SA Health boss Robyn Lawrence defends ambulance ramping data

The state’s health department chief says you don’t need to see the data for ambulance ramping at your local hospital. Do you agree?

South Australian residents do not need to know how bad ambulance ramping is at their local hospital, the state’s health boss has declared in a parliamentary hearing that was cut short by a Labor MP in a decision the opposition labelled “bizarre”.

SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence defended her department’s decision to not release hospital-specific data for ambulance ramping, asserting it was more important for South Australians to know the system was improving “overall”.

Her comments came before Labor upper house MP Irene Pnevmatikos, the chairwoman of the Legislative Review Committee, ended the hearing 10 minutes early. The Liberal Party on social media said it was a “bizarre move”.

Contacted by The Advertiser, Ms Pnevmatikos said she had a medical appointment at the Royal Adelaide Hospital she had to get to, but said she was “fine”.

“I think my health is more important than the Liberal Party asking a few questions,” she said, adding that the committee was informed last week that it would end early.

Ms Pnevmatikos said the Liberals “had four years to address the ramping crisis”.

SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence said it was not necessary to release hospital-specific ramping data …

… While Labor MP and chair of the Legislative Review Committee, Irene Pnevmatikos, cut the hearing short to attend a medical appointment.

Earlier in the hearing, Dr Lawrence suggested South Australians did not need access to hospital-specific ramping data, which is not routinely provided by SA Health.

“Overall the impact on the community is on the total hours (of ramping), it doesn’t really matter what one site is doing, because if one site is down, next month they will get more ambulances and they will be back up,” she said.

“The community needs to know overall the system is improving, not just one site.”

However, Health Minister Chris Picton’s office provided ambulance-specific data to the ABC on Thursday morning.

Asked by Liberal MP Sam Telfer if SA Health would continue providing that data routinely, Dr Lawrence said: “No.”

Health Minister Chris Picton’s office released hospital-specific ramping data to the ABC on Thursday morning – but Dr Lawrence said it was just a one-off.

The data released to the ABC showed the hours lost in the transfer of care at the Lyell McEwin Hospital rose to 622 in October, compared with 204 hours in October 2021. But October’s result was an improvement on a high of 714 hours in August.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said: “Digging out Labor’s ramping data is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.”

Mr Picton labelled her comments “the biggest load of hypocrisy ever”.

“The Liberals refused to release any ramping data at all until they were dragged kicking and screaming. Often more than 100 days went by without releasing any statistics at all,” he said.

“We have reversed the Liberals secrecy and are regularly releasing statistics.”