Two in every three ambulances are failing to arrive within the expected response times for priority 3 patients in South Australia, data obtained by the state opposition via Freedom of Information has revealed.
The SA opposition’s health spokesperson Jack Batty said while the state government released priority 1 and priority 2 ambulance response times regularly, it did not present the priority 3 or 4 response times as visibly on its online public dashboard.
“This data is the data on ambulance response times that Labor does not want you to see,” Mr Batty said.
“South Australians are waiting longer for an ambulance under Labor.”
But the government argued there had been an improvement in all priority call-outs since 2022.
It said it had publicly released the priority 3 and 4 response time figures, but they were published in a different way to highest-priority cases.
Figures obtained by the opposition through FOI show just 33.7 per cent of ambulances for priority 3 patients in April this year and 28.7 per cent of ambulances in March arrived within the expected time frame.
Earlier this month, Health Minister Blair Boyer issued a press release that stated ambulance response times for priority 1 incidents had improved from 59.4 per cent in March 2022 to 72.1 per cent in April this year.
The state government has said more ambulances for the highest-priority patients were arriving on time. (ABC News)
When an ambulance is called, the incident is triaged depending on how life-threatening the emergency is.
The SA Health website shows that a priority 1 call is deemed an “emergency” and 60 per cent of ambulances should arrive within 8 minutes of the Triple Zero (000) call being made.
Priority 2 is classed as “urgent” and 90 per cent of calls should be attended within 16 minutes.
Priority 3 patients are expected to have an ambulance respond within 30 minutes, while priority 4 and 5 are within 60 minutes.
If a patient does not arrive at hospital and receive care within 30 minutes of an ambulance being called, it is known as ramping.
Jack Batty criticised lower-priority ambulance wait times. (ABC News)
“If you’re calling an ambulance for yourself or a loved one, the last thing you want is to be waiting and watching the clock, wondering when an ambulance is going to arrive,”
Mr Batty said.
“You don’t have to be a genius to work out you’re not going to fix ambulance ramping by just putting more ambulances on the road.”
Government defends response times
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said there was always room for improvement, however, the response times for priority 1 and 2 incidents had “dramatically improved”.
“Response times now are way better than what they were under a Liberal government,” he said.
“Ambulances are turning up on time in life-threatening situations.”
Tom Koutsantonis defended the government’s efforts in reducing wait times. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
Mr Koutsantonis said the SA Ambulance Service had more resources than ever before.
“We are throwing money at them and resources and staff and training.”
SA Ambulance Employees Association secretary Paul Ekkelbloom said emphasis was placed on responding to priority 1 and 2 cases.
“Rightfully so, they are the life-threatening cardiac arrests, strokes and extensive pain,” he said.
“Unfortunately, those priority 3s sort of do take second place, which we don’t like to see. All patients should be seen in a realistic time frame for sure.”
Paul Ekkelboom says the ambulance service always needs to increase crewing. (ABC News)
He said priority 3 cases included abdominal pain, falls, strokes, nausea and mental health patients going through an acute episode.
Mr Ekkelbloom said during the “bad days” in 2021 and 2022, some patients were dying because ambulances were not getting to people in time.
“They would pass away when we arrived,” he said.
He said the SA Ambulance Service needed continual increases in crewing.
“We still need more … every time we see an injection of resources and funding, we see an improvement in response times.”
