Talking Point: Three-hour ambulance wait tip of the iceberg
The grim statistics reveal a Tasmanian system in crisis, says Bastian Seidel
Opinion
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For every individual’s story that makes its way into the pages of a newspaper, there are thousands of people living the same pain resulting from our chronically underfunded health system.
News this week that an elderly Tasmanian woman waited three hours for an ambulance during a medical emergency is confronting. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
COVID-19 saw a temporary easing of pressure on our emergency departments and ambulance service. That’s because many of the activities that saw people end up in an ambulance or a hospital had stopped. It seems that as COVID restrictions ease, the pressure on our health system is increasing.
We’ve seen in recent weeks a return to ambulance ramping. Hospitals can’t get patients out of the emergency department and into a bed on a ward, which means paramedics can’t get people out of ambulances parked outside. Every minute an ambulance is ramped is a minute longer it takes for someone with a medical emergency to get the care they need. Our paramedics are fabulous. The many unpaid volunteers don’t only give up their valuable time for our community — they are now a central and indispensable part of our ambulance network which would fall apart without them. There are 55 ambulance stations in Tasmania, of which 41 use volunteers. And 21 stations are staffed solely by volunteers.
Our paramedics are my heroes. Every single one of them. Over the years, I have spoken to many paramedics right across Tasmania. Facilities and essential equipment are in urgent need of upgrades or replacement. Career paths for paramedics and continuous professional development and training are too often put aside for daily urgent callouts and complete devotion to health service delivery in our communities.
Stress levels and burnout is high among staff. The pressure is felt on all levels.
The government health system notes the median emergency response time — how long it takes an ambulance to reach you during a medical emergency — is 13.8 minutes. The number tells a small part of the story because, as we have seen this week, you can wait far longer. And the further you are from a major population centre, the longer you will wait.
Response times are only measured, recorded and reported for the city areas of greater Hobart and Launceston. Not for regional areas, such as Margate, Huonville and Dover. There is no objective evidence to say how long people wait in communities outside major cities. And you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Making a bad situation worse, regional crews are often diverted to help out in the city, leaving some regions without first responders when they are needed. It’s not clear to me why regional Tasmanians should be systematically disadvantaged. It’s not clear to many in my community either. We pay the same taxes, the same levies, the same rates.
There is no discounting of living costs — there should not be any discounting for health services either.
Life expectancy in regional Tasmania is the second lowest in our nation, second only to the Australian Outback (80.9 versus 74.5 years). We all know the health burden in our regions is disproportionately higher than the city. There are many reasons for that. The population is older and public transport and access to allied health and medical services is limited. The social determinants of health are complex and hard to address without decent continuous funding and support.
That’s why at the very least — and urgently — we should invest appropriately in our emergency and ambulance services. Last year, 426 Tasmanians arrived in the hospital emergency department — dead.
It’s a sickening statistic that should be a wake-up call for all, because before becoming a statistical and health policy footnote, those Tasmanians were members of our community. They were us.
It’s about time to get our priorities right.
Dr Bastian Seidel is ALP candidate for the Legislative Council seat of Huon, a GP in Huonville and former president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
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