ALP lashed for ‘celebrating’ dire ambulance response times

The Malinauskas government has been accused of ‘celebrating’ shocking findings that ambulances in South Australia take nearly an hour to arrive at an emergency.

SA Health Minister Chris Picton addressed criticisms from the opposition and AMA. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The Malinauskas government has been accused of “celebrating” shocking findings that ambulances in South Australia take nearly an hour to arrive at an emergency, with industry bodies and the state opposition calling for more to be done to improve ­response times.

The Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2022-23 found ambulances arrived at the scene of 90 per cent of triple-zero calls within 55.6 minutes, a figure that Labor has touted as a significant drop from the 71.3 minute waits a year prior.

But Australian Medical Association South Australia president John Williams said any response focusing entirely on ambulance wait times was “naive”.

“Every single part of the system is under stress, and just to focus on one thing like ambulance waiting times is really just naive, and not looking at the system as a whole,” he said.

“I don’t think it would be fair on our doctors, who are working under very difficult conditions, I don’t think it would be fair on them for the government to celebrate that.

“I don’t think it would be fair on the public, on our community, or on patients that still have extended waiting times in the ED or in an ambulance on the ramp.

“It wouldn’t be fair for either of those two (parties) to celebrate something when we still have some really big problems to face up to and address.”

AMA (SA) president Dr John Williams. Picture: AMA

SA Liberal MP Ashton Hurn. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Williams criticised the “gap” between state and federal health bodies, calling for investment in improving primary healthcare and Medicare reform.

SA opposition health spokesperson Ashton Hurn accused the Malinauskas government of “giving themselves a big old pat on the back” during a healthcare crisis.

“Often when these types of reports do come out, it’s very easy for the government to just cherry pick statistics, and whilst we’re pleased to see that response times are ­rebounding on the back of Covid, they are still the worst in the ­nation,” Ms Hurn said.

“In fact, they’re actually worse than the majority of the time under the former Liberal government, and we all know that there is one key statistic that this Premier and the Labor government aren’t wanting to talk about, and that’s ramping.

“Ramping here has never been worse, and that is the key metric the ­Labor Party set for themselves when it comes to measuring a healthy health system.

“Now’s not the time for the government to be giving themselves a big old pat on the back. Now’s the time for them to be rolling up their sleeves and getting on with delivering their promise to fix ramping.”

SA Health and Wellbeing Minister Chris Picton spruiked the party’s quick overhaul of the health sector, and argued the prior Liberal government had not addressed issues in the health sector.

“No one is saying that the job is done. No one is saying mission accomplished, but we are saying that we have turned a corner,” he said.