'Extremely unsafe environment': Ambos fears another record ramping month

The ambulance employees union is fearing another record ramping month after being contacted by multiple paramedics overnight reporting and slow response times to priority two and three patients. The opposition health spokesperson says there was a blanket "code white" for all metropolitan hospitals last night, meaning each hospital was operating at or over 125 per cent capacity. What's next? The SA government says the federal aged care crisis as a contributing factor to the state's ramping issues. South Australia's ambulance employees union is fearing another record month of ramping, saying up to 16 ambulances were ramped at Lyell McEwin Hospital the morning after the long weekend. It comes a week after a non-verbal man with pneumonia was ramped at the northern suburbs hospital for nine hours when 130 patients were inside the emergency department — where capacity is under 60. Ambulance Employees Association general secretary Paul Ekkelboom told 891 ABC Adelaide on Wednesday, he was messaged multiple times throughout the night by members. "Even until 6am this morning, we had 82 pending cases in the public," Mr Ekkelboom said. "We had priority 3's that were waiting anywhere from four hours to, I think 20 hours." Mr Ekkelboom said there were also 10 priority 2 cases — usually include conditions like chest pain, stroke or collapse — pending throughout the night. "You would dispatch one — another one would come in," he said. "Most of the time we didn't reach [them in] the KPIs of 16 minutes. "That is an extremely unsafe environment to work in." The general secretary said the pressure on paramedics and staff was becoming an "everyday occurrence". "If we don't have [ambulance] resources available because of ramping, then we're not going to be able to respond in the designated time frames," he said. "Dispatchers will work through the highest priority first … and try to manage, get some kind of response to them — knowing that there are probably going to be another four or five cases that are now going to be waiting which are very similar." Blanket 'code white' for all metro hospitals Opposition health spokesperson Jack Batty said the state's hospital system had seen a "night of extraordinary pressure on our health system". He said every metropolitan Adelaide hospital was operating under the "most extreme capacity category" — code white, meaning they were at or over 125 per cent capacity. "There was not a single emergency bed available last night available anywhere in metropolitan Adelaide," he said. "This is all being brought to you by a government who promised to fix the ramping crisis." A state government spokesperson said in a statement, code whites were a regular occurrence under the former Liberal government. "Our EDs are dealing with more presentations than ever before — nearly 11,000 more in the year to September compared with the same period last year," the spokesperson said. Speaking on 891 ABC Adelaide, Premier Peter Malinauskas cited the aged care crisis as a contributing factor to ramping. "We are now approaching 600 people in our hospital system today that are aged care patients ready to be discharged — that is to say, they should not be in hospital, they've got to get out and they've got no aged care bed to get into," he said. "The federal government is well aware, well aware. While we agree with the feds on a lot of things this is one thing [where] we've got a big point of difference, and they're well aware. Rest assured." "On the ambulance response times — yes, they are demonstrably improved and they continue to improve but they are under pressure at the moment because of what we're seeing around ramping." August recorded the most ramping hours on record — at 5,891 hours — while September reached 5,507 hours. [Image text:] Emergency Ambulance