Qld ambulance ramping crisis hits response times for cardiac arrests

The state’s ambulance ramping crisis has reached such proportions that the flow-on effect is much wider, it has been revealed.

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The state’s ambulance ramping crisis means the chances of surviving a heart attack in Queensland have plummeted to a record low.

The stark admission from Queensland Ambulance Service chief Craig Emery comes amid unprecedented pressure on the state’s health system, including ambulances being stalled at overflowing hospitals.

National Productivity Commission data, released earlier this year, revealed someone suffering a heart attack in Queensland had a 23.9 per cent chance of surviving if they collapsed without a paramedic around as of 2022-23 – the lowest it’s been since records began a decade ago.

Mr Emery, at budget estimates, said there was an intrinsic link between how quickly paramedics were able to respond and people surviving a heart attack.

“We know there’s a decreased survivability rate for people the longer it takes to get defibrillation and advanced life support,” he said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates asked Mr Emery if it was a reasonable assumption that the survivability rate had fallen because it was taking longer for paramedics to attend an unwitnessed heart attack.

“There is a link, for sure,” he said.

Queensland ambulance performance data shows it now takes them an average of 17.2 minutes to reach 90 per cent of its most critically patients – three minutes slower than what it was in June 2018.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates during the estimate hearings on Thursday. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

Ms Bates asked if Mr Emery thought it was coincidental more people were dying of a heart attack without a paramedic around while ambulances were taking longer.

“No,” he said.

Newly released data has revealed nearly 45 per cent of patients are still waiting more than 30 minutes with paramedics before they are handed over to the emergency department – a small improvement compared to a year ago.

On average each ambulance was losing 14.6 minutes each waiting at a hospital ramp in the past three months – an improvement from the 18.7 minutes in the previous June quarter.

Mr Emery said it was no mystery paramedics were “frustrated in terms of … their ability to respond”.

The Productivity Commission data also shows the chances of surviving a heart attack in Queensland when a paramedic is around was 58.6 per cent – the highest it has ever been and the best in the nation.

Queensland Ambulance respond to about 6500 heart attack call outs a year, Mr Emery said, describing it as an “underpinning tenet of what ambulance services do”.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the latest health performance data showed everything was heading in the right direction despite the ongoing increase in hospital and ambulance demand.

“While there is more work to do, this data shows our investments and policies … are helping reduce pressures on emergency departments,” she said.