Ramping ‘worst on record’ with ambos parked for 85,000 hours

Over 85,000 hours of paramedics’ time was wasted outside hospitals in the first half of this year, including over 45,000 in the second quarter.

Twenty-one ambulances were on average waiting outside Queensland’s overloaded emergency departments at any given hour in the June quarter, new figures show.

The 45,220 hours of lost time spent by paramedics included a “historic worst” result in May.

And they resulted in the worst first-half result in recent history.

From January to June 85,456 hours were lost by paramedics – 472 hours per day – more than in the entire 2020 calendar year.

The state government, however, argued the figures did not provide a true indication of patient off-stretcher time, and said more recent data revealed lost time was improving.

Documents tabled in state parliament reveal 16,036 hours of lost time was recorded in May.

Metro South Hospital and Health Service – Queensland’s second largest – was the worst performer over the June quarter with 15,279 hours lost.

Lost-time reports are completed by paramedics while they are caring for patients but are not an official government performance measure.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli seized on the figures, claiming Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s May Cabinet failed to deliver changes to the health system.

“Queensland Health is on life support and these catastrophic statistics prove the state government can’t be trusted to heal the health crisis,” he said.

“Paramedics didn’t sign up to this vocation to spend an entire shift stuck on a ramp, while other calls go unanswered from Queenslanders in their hour of need.”

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman says lost time is compiled by paramedics and not an accurate representation of patient off-stretcher time. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, however, noted lost time was an “unofficial internal reporting metric” used by the Queensland Ambulance Service and should “not be used to determine a facility’s patient off-stretcher time”.

“The QAS is the busiest ambulance service in the country, responding to 1.2 million incidents a year and is the only mainland service that is free,” she said.

A spokesman for Ms Fentiman said the amount of time lost decreased by 16 per cent across Queensland between May and August this year.

“Lost-time data between late August and mid-September has also declined significantly compared to the same period last year, falling 18 per cent statewide,” he said.

“In the last financial year, Queensland emergency departments experienced more presentations than at any other time in history.”

Ms Fentiman said the government had employed more than 1100 extra paramedics since 2015, which ensured some 90 per cent of triple-0 calls were answered within 10 seconds, and 90 per cent of the most critical incidents were attended in about 17 minutes.

The lost-time data is the latest report to reveal ongoing challenges within Queensland Health.

The Sunday Mail reported 14 Queensland towns had no dedicated doctor in their local hospital, and the majority of bush facilities were operating with fewer doctors or nurses than 18 years ago.

Hospital performance data released last week reveals while elective surgery long-wait lists had dropped by almost 20 per cent compared to 2022, 80,131 Queenslanders had waited longer than clinically recommended.

Originally published as Ramping ‘worst on record’ with ambos parked for 85,000 hours