Time lost to ambulance ramping in SA soars to record 5539 hours during July

Time lost to ambulance ramping has smashed the 5000-hour mark for the first time, as there appears no end in sight for the ongoing saga gripping our health system.

Ramping has rocketed to a grim new high of 5539 hours lost in July – the first time it has broken the 5000 hours mark and smashing May’s record of 4773 hours.

It has now more than doubled from April 2022’s figure of 2638 hours lost — the first full month after Labor came to power in the March 2022 election with a core promise to “fix” ramping.

The April 2022 figure is the lowest under Labor despite the state government throwing buckets of money into SA Health in a desperate attempt to honour the election commitment.

It also comes despite the code yellow internal emergency declared by SA Health on May 30 which has seen almost 900 elective surgery procedures cancelled to free up ward beds and try to ease pressure on chronically full emergency departments which then leads to ramping.

At midday on Friday as the ramping figures for July were being released, most EDs were near or above official capacity, such as Lyell McEwin Hospital clinicians treating 63 people in their 59-capacity ED.

Emergency departments are regularly full leading to record ramping. Picture: NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

At the Royal Adelaide Hospital where clinicians were treating 64 people in the 69-capacity ED, there were six people who had been stuck in the ED for more than 24 hours waiting for a suitable ward bed and 14 patients waiting 12-24 hours.

The 5539 hours lost to ramping for July follows 3798 hours of paramedics with patients in ambulances stuck in hospital car parks in June.

The highest level of ramping under the former Liberal government was 2867 hours in October 2021 while under Labor it has been above 3000 hours every month since the March 2022 election bar four.

Health Minister Chris Picton partly blamed the federal government for lack of aged care places while the “horrified” Ambulance Employees Association (AEU) partly blamed SA Health.

Union protests back when ramping was at half the present levels.

Mr Picton, announcing 55 new beds at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre for patients awaiting aged care places and a new TV campaign urging respect for health workers, said: “Right now, there are more than 200 older South Australians waiting for an aged care bed who are medically ready to leave hospital.

“This is putting extreme strain on hospitals around the country, and we continue to call on the federal government to address this critical issue. We need the federal government to meet their aged care responsibilities.”

AEU state secretary Leah Watkins said the union was “horrified” to learn the latest figures, saying members were in tears at being “left to rot on the ramp”.

“There are multiple policies in place right now that could free up ambulance stuck on

hospital ramps to respond to the community and reduce ramping hours, policies that are not being followed by the department,” she said.

Ms Watkins noted the 5539 hours lost was the equivalent of 15 crews on 12 hours shifts not being available to the public throughout all of July.

Opposition leader David Speirs said the public should be horrendously disappointed with Labor’s electrion promise to “fix” ramping which he called the biggest fraud in Australia's electoral history.

“They said vote Labor like your life depnds on it,” he said. “They have screwed up every single aspect of our health system and patients are dying at the hands of this failing Labor govenrment.”

He called for the sacking of Mr Picton and also the chiefs of SA Health and the SA Ambulance Service.