Ambulance union warns of flu peak amid rising ramping, after patients left waiting
The Ambulance Employees Association shared an image of ramping at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. (Supplied: Ambulance Employees Association)
In short:
The Ambulance Employees Association is concerned SA's flu season is yet to peak amid what it described as one of the worst winters on record for ramping.
The state's health minister said "pronounced demand" was above predictions for the SA Ambulance Service on Wednesday, after the union said almost 80 patients were left waiting at one point.
What's next?
The union said there was a need for more "resilience in the system".
South Australia's ambulance union says a peak of around 80 patients — around half of them priority cases — were left waiting for ambulances across Adelaide on Wednesday, and has called for "immediate and sustained investment" to meet growing demand.
The Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) said the SA Ambulance Service "had to implement a 'no-send' policy for some [patients] due to a lack of available ambulance resources" because crews were stuck on ramps.
Speaking to 891 ABC Adelaide, the AEA's general secretary Paul Ekkelboom said he was concerned ramping levels were so high amid unusually low levels of flu cases for August which are only now beginning to rise.
"We're quite fearful that if we actually see a massive spike in flu like we did last year, I don't know how this system is going to cope," Mr Ekkelboom said.
While the final figures have not yet been calculated, the union said that "ramping this winter remains among the worst on record".
"We are significantly concerned that this August will prove to be the worst on record due to insufficient hospital capacity, insufficient available crews and no clear policy to end ramping," the AEA said in its statement, which was posted on social media.
AEA SA general secretary Paul Ekkelboom says urgent solutions are needed. (ABC News)
Mr Ekkelboom said despite investments already made by the state government into improving capacity to meet patient demand, paramedics urgently needed "some solutions now".
"As an ambulance service, we need a greater expansion to transit wards because we need an ability to rapidly offload our patients off our stretchers, so that we can be freed up to respond,"he said.
South Australian Health Minister Blair Boyer said the number of Triple Zero (000) calls on Wednesday was around 30 per cent greater than projections by the ambulance service.
"It was predicted for between 11[am] and midday yesterday to be around 60 Triple Zero calls, and 90 were received instead," said Mr Boyer.
"It was a day of really pronounced demand where lots of people well above the 12-week average, well above what was predicted, were calling into Triple Zero."
SA's Ambulance Employees Association says there is a need for more resilience and capacity in the system. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Mr Boyer said staff illness also contributed to reduced capacity.
Mr Ekkelboom was critical of the lack of "flexibility" to respond to increased demand.
"What is damning is that we don't have any resilience in the system," he said.
"If we have 30 increased calls in a given hour … the system becomes overwhelmed."
According to the minister, more than 70 per cent of Priority 1 calls were met within eight minutes.
The target for SA Health is for at least 60 per cent of such calls to be met in that time.
Mr Boyer said he was scheduled to speak with the chief executive of the SA Ambulance Service on Thursday morning.
ABC News has contacted SA Health to confirm Wednesday's ramping figures.