Seven months on and ramping is worse than ever

The Malinauskas Labor Government has resorted to treating hospital patients in storage rooms and giving “impossible” directions to doctors to assess patients in just three minutes, in a desperate bid to meet its commitment to ‘fix ramping’.

It is now clear that ‘fix ramping’ was merely an election slogan for Labor – they had no plan.

Today, new SA Health Chief Executive Dr Robyn Lawrence will be quizzed about the escalating ramping crisis during a Legislative Review Committee into ambulance resourcing and ramping.

The Opposition will take aim at Peter Malinauskas’ decision to treat patients in storage rooms – and the disturbing direction given to doctors to move patients on quickly – to clear the appearance of ramping at hospitals.

Peter Malinauskas’ Labor Party promised to “fix the ramping crisis”, but since the election the Government’s own statistics show the ramping crisis is worse than ever.

These are the lengths to which the Malinauskas Labor Government is going to, to hide ramping.

Peter Malinauskas also promised South Australians ramping data would be released publicly every month. It currently takes up to six weeks for the data to published – it is often hidden in complicated press releases, often dropped late on Friday afternoons, posted briefly on a web site, far from the easy reach of the public.

The Opposition is calling for transparency and the Malinauskas Labor Government to:

• Publish monthly ramping data on a SA Health website and maintain a record for the past 12 months for context.
• Publish the data on a regular day each month for consistency.
• Publish the breakdown of ramping hours of every hospital.

Dr Lawrence previously admitted a breakdown of ramping hours at individual hospitals “probably can” be published.

Shadow Minister for Health Ashton Hurn said South Australians elected Peter Malinauskas because of his ramping promise.

“When Peter Malinauskas promised South Australians he’d fix ramping, he forgot to tell them that some of his promised beds would be in hospital storage rooms,” Mrs Hurn said.

“We have had the worst six months of ramping in state history and Peter Malinauskas is failing on his promise to fix the issue.

“As it currently stands there’s no way for South Australians to hold Peter Malinauskas to account – digging out Labor’s ramping data is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

“South Australians voted for Peter Malinauskas because Labor promised to fix ramping, but with ramping more than doubling since the election, it appears that Labor’s focus is on hiding the data, not fixing problem.

“South Australians have the right to access ramping data easily and in a convenient place so they can judge for themselves if Peter Malinauskas is making good on his promises.”