Fears of the ambulance ramping issue spreading to regional hospitals were sparked by an incident at the South Coast District Hospital on the morning of last Saturday 29 October.

A 75-year-old woman suffering a severe asthma attack was ramped for more than 30 minutes at the hospital because no beds were available in the Emergency Department.

The woman had been attended by two ambulance crews, one from Victor Harbor and one from Aldinga.

She was eventually treated in the ED and was released later the same day.

A statement from the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network says the Southern Fleurieu Health Service has no evidence of ramping in recent weeks.

“On occasion, multiple ambulances may arrive at the hospital at the same time and it may take some time to coordinate patients into the department, however patients are not held in ambulances.

“All patients presenting to our emergency departments will be treated according to their clinical needs, with the care of emergency patients being prioritised as always.”

Ambulance ramping has been an increasing problem in Adelaide hospitals for several years, becoming a major issue at the March state election.

Finnis MP David Basham says the former Liberal state government made a commitment to upgrade the South Coast District Hospital Emergency Department, expanding it to provide more beds. 

“This project was announced and budgeted when we were in government and when complete it will assist with ramping, but we are still waiting for the upgrade to be delivered. 

“Ramping is not acceptable especially at our regional hospital where under normal circumstances, there should be no occasion that patients wait to be admitted from an ambulance. 

“Our local ambulances regularly continue to wait outside Adelaide Hospitals making it challenging to return and service the local area.” 

An Ambulance Service Dashboard gives a real time snapshot of occupancy of South Australian metropolitan emergency department and inpatient beds.

It does not cover regional hospitals and does not presently include the Flinders Medical Centre because of a data outage due to an upgrade of its patient administration system.

Ambulance ramping is a nation-wide problem as health services struggle to address systemic failures in the flow of patients in and out of hospitals.

The complex issue requires sophisticated solutions seemingly beyond both state and federal governments.

In May the state government committed $6.1M funding for two additional paramedic crews on the south coast and a new, purpose-built ambulance station in Victor Harbor.