Ambulances spent more than a month waiting last month
Date
July 17, 2012
Ambulances have never spent as much time queuing outside metropolitan hospitals as they have so far this year, the state opposition says.
Opposition health spokesperson Roger Cook said new figures revealed ambulances were ramped outside WA hospitals for a record 826 hours in June.
He said the June figures continued the bad start to 2012, when the highest-ever figures were also recorded in March, April and May.
"Under the Barnett government the queues in our hospitals just get longer and longer and WA patients are paying the price," Mr Cook said.
The highest daily figure recorded for ambulance ramping in WA was on May 28, which was 127 hours.
"That should have set off alarm bells, yet the June figures are substantially worse than the May total," Mr Cook said.
"This June, ambulances were ramped outside hospitals for more than 500 hours longer than June 2011, more than 300 hours longer than June 2010 and more than 400 hours longer than June 2009.
Mr Cook said WA's Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, had to take some of the blame.
"Month after month health minister Kim Hames claims he is putting systems in place to deal with ambulance ramping but almost every month the problem gets worse," he said.
"In June this year Dr Hames ordered a review into the increasing number of patients seeking emergency treatment.
"Why did it take him so long to investigate the problem, when Labor has raised the issue over a number of years?
"It's time for the minister to take serious action and come up with a solution, not just another empty promise."
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Kim Hames said ambulance ramping was reflective of rising demand across the health system.
"Presentations to metropolitan emergency departments in WA have increased by more than 11 per cent, meaning many more people are attending the state's emergency departments than ever before," he said.
"This is well above the rate expected just from the growth in population and is caused by having too few GPs in WA.
"Indeed we have 15 per cent fewer GPs to population than the national average and people are now using the emergency departments instead of general practice.
"Ultimately ambulance ramping figures will improve as more GPs are recruited."
Dr Hames said a new strategy to combat ambulance ramping would start at Royal Perth Hospital this week.
"This will allow ambulance officers to get back on the road as quickly as possible while a dedicated team remains to care for their patients," he said.
Dr Hames would not provide any further detail on the new plan.
Ramping hours so far in 2012
January: 392 hours
February: 313 hours
March: 539 hours
April: 457 hours
May: 711 hours
June: 826 hours
Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/ambulances-spent-more-than-a-month-waiting-last-month-20120717-227ra.html#ixzz20xnDkYTj
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