An urgent summit is being called to address Tasmania’s ambulance ramping crisis as the health union claims the state government’s “inaction” is putting “lives at risk”.
Ambulance ramping has reached a crisis point in Tasmania, prompting calls for an urgent summit to address the matter.
New data has revealed over 47 per cent of all ambulances at the Royal Hobart Hospital were ramped on arrival from 2022 to 2023.
New data has revealed more than 15,000 patients were left ramped outside hospitals across the state in the first nine months of the 2022-2023 financial year, and waited an average of two hours to be transferred from ambulance to hospital.
Nearly half, 47.8 per cent, of all ambulances at the Royal Hobart Hospital were ramped on arrival in this financial year, up from 42.6 per cent in the previous year.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff accused of misleading Tasmanians after new figures showed a deepening ambulance ramping crisis. Picture: Chris Kidd
Reported in The Mercury, a government spokesperson cited data from the Australian Medical Association in response to the alarming figures, saying almost 80 per cent of patients in Tasmania were transferred within 30 minutes.
But Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff claims that data is in fact from the 2020-2021 financial year and the situation has significantly worsened since then.
“The information the Greens extracted from the Government in Estimates shows things have become so much worse since then, with a large drop to just 67.5 per cent of arrivals being transferred within 30 minutes,” she wrote in a statement.
“What the Liberals have done is deliberately provide out-of-date information to try and mislead Tasmanians, in a futile effort to defend their terrible record on ramping.
Sky News host Jenna Clarke says a Tasmanian Labor government will boost funding to regional and rural hospitals to help ease the pressures on swamped emergency departments.
“With the government resorting to using old figures to defend themselves, it only underscores our point – things are quickly getting much worse for patients who need timely emergency care.
“You would expect these appalling figures to be a wake-up call for the government.”
“The Premier can try and mislead the Tasmanian people all he likes, or blame someone or something else for the crisis in ramping. The community doesn’t buy it.”
There are now calls being made for the state government to hold an urgent summit to address the ambulance crisis.
Loading embed…
Robbie Moore, assistant secretary of Tasmania’s Health and Community Services Union, says the government “cannot continue to put lives at risk or see more patients die on the ramp.”
“This shouldn’t be happening in a developed, wealthy country like Australia … inaction by the government (is) putting lives at risk and people will die while the situation continues,” he said on Monday.
“Tasmanians deserve a government that’s serious about their health.”
But Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson says while there has been “higher demand” for health care in the community, the government has committed to employing more paramedics and opening additional beds in hospitals to try to bring down ramping rates.
In last month’s budget, the Rockliff government announced it will invest $12.1 billion into the state’s health system over the next four years.