New figures reveal scale of ambulance ramping problem at Royal Hobart Hosital

Patients ramped at the Royal Hobart Hospital are waiting a staggering amount of time before receiving full treatment, according to new data that has been described as “devastating”.

Ambulances at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Picture: Chris Kidd

Ambulance ramping times are soaring at the Royal Hobart Hospital, with one in 10 ramped patients experiencing delays of more than five hours before receiving full medical care last year.

It comes as a parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping, which the Greens moved to establish, prepares to hold a hearing in Hobart on Thursday.

Figures recently obtained by the Greens show that the 90th percentile of ramping times at the RHH in 202–-23 was 302 minutes, meaning 10 per cent of ramped patients presenting at the emergency department waited more than five hours before they were given full treatment.

Ambulances at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Picture: Chris Kidd

The 75th percentile was 188 minutes, meaning 25 per cent waited more than three hours, and the 50th percentile was 92 minutes, meaning 50 per cent of ramped patients waited more than an hour-and-a-half.

This represented a sharp increase on ramping wait times at the RHH in 2021–22, when the 90th percentile was 225 minutes, the 75th percentile was 143 minutes, and the 50th percentile was 74 minutes.

Ramping occurs when emergency departments reach capacity and ambulances carrying patients are forced to queue up outside the hospital.

There is a dedicated room at the RHH where ramped patients are able to be treated by paramedics.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff, who is chairing the parliamentary inquiry, said it was “devastating to see the trend of worsening ambulance ramping continue”.

“The increasing wait times are not just inconvenient – they put lives at risk. The longer people are prevented from getting the diagnosis and treatment they need, the more likely there will be bad health outcomes,” Dr Woodruff said.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Under the Liberals the number of ramped patients has skyrocketed, and ramping figures are a shocking five times higher than in 2015.”

A Health Department spokesman said only patients who experienced “transfer of care” delays, which are defined as being more than 15 minutes, were counted in the data and more than 60 per cent of total ambulance presentations in 2022-–23 were transferred in 15 minutes or less.

“The Department of Health continues to work hard on ways to improve patient care and outcomes in our health system, as demands on the system continue to increase,” he said.

“This includes delivering additional bed capacity and recruiting hundreds of additional staff each year to ensure we can safely staff the additional beds.

“We have opened an additional 237 beds across the health system from July 2018 to June 2023, and recruited an additional 327 full-time equivalent staff across the department from July 2022 to June 2023.”