SA Health rejects claims kids were ramped in ambulances at Women’s and Children’s Hospital

Explosive claims sick or injured kids were left in ramped ambulances at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital have been flatly denied.

SA Health officials have bluntly denied claims vulnerable children were left ramped in ambulances outside the Women’s and Children’s Hospital emergency department, saying there is “no evidence” it occurred.

The explosive claim was made in evidence given to a parliamentary committee hearing, however a spokesman for the Women’s and Children’s Health Network told The Advertiser it was not true.

“The Women’s and Children’s Hospital does not ramp and there is no evidence of any occurrence of ramping in recent weeks,” a spokesman said.

“While the paediatric emergency department has been very busy in recent weeks, all patients presenting by ambulance have been transferred in a timely manner.”

South Australian Faculty Chair of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Dr Mark Morphett told the committee on health services that South Australia is “in an ongoing health crisis when it comes to the emergency and acute care needs of our citizens”.

He said ambulance ramping had been seen as “the lesser of two evils” compared with leaving a patient in an overcrowded waiting room but had now become the norm.

“For the first time in history, in the last couple of weeks the Women’s and Children’s Hospital has ramped, so our children are now being ramped as well as our adults,” he said.

“Likewise, we have pointed to avoidable deaths on our hospital ramps; now we are beginning to point to avoidable deaths in the community as a response of delayed ambulance response times.”

Questioned on the issue by committee chair Connie Bonaros MLC, Dr Morphett said: “I believe it has only happened one day, last week.”

However, SA Health deny the claim.

Dr Morphett also told the committee that: “With some regularity, we see patients in the RAH ED, especially mental health patients, for stays of anywhere up to four to five days, which is fairly unbelievable, actually.”