Critics claim an update to the Ambulance Transport and Handover policy by SA Health will obfuscate ramping stats

An updated policy on ambulance transfers at EDs has alarmed clinicians who fear it will increase pressure on hospital staff already operating at overcapacity.

SA Health has quietly updated its Ambulance Transport and Handover policy despite the draft plan sparking uproar amid claims it was designed to disguise ramping.

Clinicians fear the new policy will see corridors clogged with patients instead of having them stuck in ambulances ramping in car parks.

Unlike the previous policy, the new policy states: “Patients arriving via ambulance must be assessed and triaged as per usual ED triage procedures. Following triage, the LHN (Local Health Network) assumes overall responsibility for patient care.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn had warned Labor was “trying to trick the public into believing the record ambulance ramping they created is decreasing.”

“Feedback was very strong from the get go, with one clinician saying that ‘patients will die and staff will leave’ and another saying there would be ‘unattended patients in invisible spots in the ED getting no care or indeed no monitoring,” she said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

“Labor has now delivered the worst ramping in the state’s history, despite their iron-clad promise to fix it — and we expect they’ll try any trick to get the ramping numbers down.”

However, health officials say it simply clarifies who has legal responsibility for which patients, at which time, and in which location.

SA Health chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence said there had been extensive consultation on the updated policy.

“It is important our hospitals and SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) work together to manage risk in the community by enabling ambulance resources to be released as soon as possible to respond to urgent and emergency care needs within the community,” she said.

“Provision of urgent and emergency care includes consideration of patients in the community, on the ramp, and in the waiting room. The decision for who gets treatment and when is a clinical decision, with the sickest patients always receiving treatment first.

“Ambulance clinicians will continue providing direct care until transfer of care occurs. Our paramedics, nurses, and doctors remain committed to working together to ensure safe and timely access to care for all patients.”

SA Health CEO Dr Robyn Lawrence. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Health Minister Chris Picton said: “Months ago Ashton Hurn had to embarrassingly walk back her comments on this policy which were called ‘offensive’ by ambos.

“Ashton Hurn knows that the policy clarification was recommended by Professors Bill Griggs and Keith McNeil but she is choosing to play politics anyway.

“We continue to get on with the job of building hundreds of extra hospital beds, recruiting more doctors and nurses and reversing the Liberals’ cuts to hospitals.”

Ramping hit 4134 hours in March, the fifth consecutive month it has risen.

While ramping is on the rise even before the cold weather hits, EDs are clogged — the combined ED capacity of the seven main metropolitan public hospitals is 333 but at 6pm on Sunday clinicians were treating 371 patients.

At Flinders Medical Centre clinicians were treating 82 patients in their 63-capacity ED.

Originally published as Critics claim an update to the Ambulance Transport and Handover policy by SA Health will obfuscate ramping stats