Media release – Health and Community Services Union, 23 May 2022
Paramedics slam government over ambulance emergency response time blowouts
Paramedics have today slammed the government over worsening ambulance emergency response times in Tasmania due to fundamental failures of government.
Ambulance response times in Tasmania have hit an average of 14.6 minutes for the highest priority cases, according to Ambulance Tasmania Monthly Performance Report.
One in 10 responses to a high priority emergency call take more than 34 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
Since this government came to power, median emergency response times have blown out on average from 11.4 minutes in April 2014 to 14 minutes in April last year when Premier Rockliff inherited the health portfolio, up to a horrific 14.6 minutes right now.
Daily average ramping hours have surged from 39.4 hours a day in 2014 to 52.3 hours in April last year, now 85.2 hours each day (as of data released in May 2022).
“Tasmanians deserve better than this,” said HACSU Industrial Manager Robbie Moore.
“Our analysis of the data suggests that Tasmania has the two most inefficient public hospitals in the nation regarding patient flow. The LGH is the worst, closely followed by the RHH. This is a terrible outcome for all of us.
“This isn’t a failure of frontline staff. This is a fundamental failure of the government to understand that patient flow needs a higher priority, and hospitals need surge capacity to deal with peak demands.
“The solution to peak demands at the moment is to increase ambulance ramping, which has had a significant effect on response times and is resulting in premature deaths. Our members are reporting adverse patient outcomes to us and this is having a huge impact on their mental health.”
“Tasmanians should be angry that this is happening. It’s having a tremendous impact on paramedics and call takers who simply are not able to respond or send a resource because of hospital ramping.
“Further, this is having a huge impact on hospital staff, nurses and doctors, medical orderlies, and allied health professionals who are working without adequate staffing resources. Level 3 is normal business at the LGH and the RHH. Level 4 at the RHH is completely common – it should be absolutely rare and extraordinary to go to level 4.”
HACSU is launching a campaign to urge the government to provide proper resources to our hospital system and we demand that the upcoming Budget addresses these fundamental failures of government.
