In short:
The ambulance union says 56 ambulances were ramped outside South Australia’s public hospitals on Wednesday, leaving patients uncovered in the community.
The union spokesperson has asked SA Health to extend its code yellow.
What’s next?
The health department says initiatives that better manage patient flow will continue with those needing the most urgent care treated first.
Chronic levels of ramping — as bad as when borders reopened during the COVID years — have left more than 20 South Australians without an ambulance, a union says.
Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) general secretary Leah Watkins told ABC Radio Adelaide 56 ambulances were ramped outside five public hospitals on Wednesday, with 23 emergency cases in the community “uncovered”.
She is pleading for an extension of the code yellow at the state’s public hospitals, which SA Health says will end on Friday after being in place for more than two months.
“There were 17 [ambulances ramped] at Flinders [Medical Centre]; many of them were ramped up to five hours each but some up to seven hours,” Ms Watkins said.
“There were 12 at Lyell McEwin, 13 at the RAH [Royal Adelaide Hospital], at least five or six at the [QEH] and about eight at the Women’s and Children.
“When you add all of that up, that leaves nothing left to respond to these pending cases.”
Ms Watkins said at about 8pm on Wednesday, the SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) were unable to reach 23 patients triaged as priority 2, which has a target response time of 16 minutes.
“The ambulance service in response to this has to declare an op stat white, which means they cannot meet their KPIs and patient safety is directly affected,” she said.
“Those conditions prevailed for hours upon hours where one ambulance would be freed up to cover one of the jobs, then two more cases would come in.
“It was just relentless.”
Ms Watkins said she was not aware of any deaths resulting from a delayed ambulance yesterday.
An aged care patient died while waiting five hours for an ambulance in July — the same month South Australia recorded its worst month for ramping.
She said paramedics have been on “the brink of tears” and felt demoralised facing delays similar to when South Australia had began to allow interstate travel in early 2022.
“It so quickly takes them back to the condition of two years ago where they were actually turning up after hours … to find a patient going into cardiac arrest as they got there or they’ve passed away already waiting,” Ms Watkins said.
“In the weeks leading up to the state election around March 2022, there were five patient deaths that we were alerted to by members where there had also been a significantly delayed ambulance response to their emergency cases.
“I’m so concerned that we are heading back into this type of territory again where we’re seeing very long delays to emergency cases.”
Ms Watkins said the entire hospital network was “absolutely crippled” and called on a statewide code yellow “where certain declarations and directions can be given to ensure the safety of the community”.
The health department’s chief executive officer, Dr Robyn Lawrence, said the code yellow will end on Friday as planned.
“The escalation processes and collaborative approach we adopted through code yellow will continue, as will initiatives that better manage patient flow across our system,” she said in a statement.
“This includes purchasing care in the private sector, hiring more staff, and opening more beds as quickly as possible.
“We are also advocating for long stay patients who [no] longer needing acute care but are unable to be discharged due to the lack of Commonwealth aged care services and NDIS supports.
“Clinicians continue to triage patients presenting at our sites appropriately and those needing the most urgent care are always treated first.”
