Ambulance ramping leaves paramedics ‘unable to respond to emergencies’, says union

A union says Ballarat’s entire ambulance fleet is sometimes tied up at hospital, resulting in a “scramble for additional resources” as local health services face increased emergency demand.

The Victorian Ambulance Union says ramping is a major issue at Ballarat’s hospital and elsewhere across the state.

Ballarat paramedics are “unable to respond to emergencies”, the state’s ambulance union says, as video shows extensive ramping issues at the city’s hospital overnight.

Video from Tuesday night appears to depict at least nine ambulances parked outside Ballarat Base Hospital’s intake bay.

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said there were often no beds available at the hospital or no staff to look after a patient, leaving paramedics waiting for as long as six hours — sometimes half of an entire shift.

“Hospitals like Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong have a huge catchment area and the service of a huge amount of patients,” he said.

“They get completely smashed.

“We’ve seen almost the entire Ballarat fleet at Ballarat Hospital ramped at any one time.”

Mr Hill said Ballarat often had to “scramble for additional resources” from beyond the city, causing a “massive-flow on effect” for patients in the broader region.

Grampians Health hospitals chief operating officer Ben Kelly said Ballarat’s emergency department had higher demand at the moment because of winter illnesses and staffing pressures.

“Due to the increased demand in the ED, those visiting could experience higher wait times,” he said.

“All patients presenting to our ED (via Ambulance or through the front door) are triaged carefully and those who are most unwell will be seen to first.

“While we acknowledge that we are not alone in this, and a similar pressure is being experienced across the state, we thank our staff for doing everything they can to limit wait times for our community.”

He asked the community consider seeing GPs or nurses on call, or Ballarat’s Priority Primary Care Centre rather than the emergency department if their care was not urgent.

A state government spokesman said Ballarat Base Hospital continued to treat all category 1 ED patients in the clinically recommended time.

“Health systems across the world have been heavily impacted and changed as a consequence of the once-in-100-year pandemic,” he said.

“Primary care is harder to access, patients are sicker and staying in hospital longer, and we’re seeing record numbers visit the emergency department and Triple Zero calls.

The January to March 2024 quarter recorded 96,484 Code 1 call outs, representing a 4.4 per cent increase compared to the same quarter last year.