‘People are dying in ambulances’: Health ministers say nation gripped by health crisis, call for NDIS fix   

The Age
May 16, 2021




State health ministers say their systems are being overrun due to unforeseen ill health arising from the pandemic, as the Australian Medical Association warns patients are dying in clogged emergency departments and ambulances spending hours ramped outside hospitals.

The ministers, united across the political divide, say Canberra must step in as a matter of urgency to increase funding to public hospitals and fix the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and aged care systems, where assessment delays are locking up hundreds of hospital beds.



In interviews with The Sunday Age and Sun-Herald, ministers from the five mainland states called for more cash to deal with record demand that they admit they did not expect post-2020 when GP visits dropped 10 per cent and screenings were missed.

The ministers detailed how hundreds of beds in each of their states were occupied by patients who no longer needed hospital care staying for up to four months because NDIS and aged care assessment delays meant they had nowhere to go. They said these lags, in the federal government’s domain, were a key factor in overcrowding.

State health departments are still determining exactly why Australians are getting more seriously ill and in greater volumes as healthcare systems have been switched back on this year. The ministers believe the likely driver is the impact of delayed or deferred care.

When the ministers met with federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in Melbourne last month, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the group had a “lightbulb moment”. They realised the crises in their own states were mirrored across the country.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says Victoria is facing a “perfect storm” of demand.


“They all said they were being completely overrun,” said West Australian Health Minister Roger Cook, who raised the matter at the meeting. “We’re quite frankly being smashed.”

The ministers reported back to their bosses – premiers and the prime minister. They demanded the problems be addressed at the next meeting of the National Cabinet, which decided at its last meeting that the health crisis would be a main focus of its June session.



In Victoria, a 32-year-old woman was found dead on her bathroom floor last month after waiting almost seven hours for an ambulance. Also in April, a seven-year-old girl died in WA after waiting two hours in a crowded emergency department. In Queensland and South Australia ambulance ramping is rife, with people dying waiting for delayed ambulances in Brisbane and one hospital running at 190 per cent capacity. NSW paramedics are also struggling to cope.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said there was anecdotal evidence of preventable deaths and near misses caused by ramping and jammed EDs. It is often difficult to prove whether a fatality could have been avoided if the health system was not stretched, meaning incidents are often not reported and brought to public attention.

“People are dying in the backs of ambulances. That is happening,” he said.



“Record ambulance ramping is becoming normal. It’s ludicrous in this rich country we have, that when you’re sick enough to get an ambulance, you get there and you sit in an ambulance for hours.

“Something has happened post-COVID that has made it a whole lot worse … There is an emergency need for action.”

Dr Khorshid met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in recent weeks as he aims to make federal health funding an election issue with a likely advertising campaign and targeting of marginal seats. While the health system has been strained for years, Dr Khorshid and the ministers believe the pandemic has rapidly and dramatically exacerbated existing shortcomings.

The AMA campaign will push to increase the Commonwealth’s share of public hospital funding from 45 to 50 per cent, build new hospitals and beds (which have not kept up with population growth), reduce demand for emergency treatment through primary healthcare reform, and create performance incentives for hospitals.



NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, who said he was deeply concerned by the level of demand for ED treatment, called for a comprehensive review into how the Commonwealth funds public hospitals. “We are copping it far more than we ever have, and I anticipate it will continue.” He also said the Commonwealth may need to increase funding for GPs.

Mr Hazzard’s view on hospital funding is shared by the health ministers and is set to be ticked off as a joint recommendation of the next health ministers meeting to be held before the national cabinet.

this was always going to happen.

you blow budgets doing millions fo covid tests and other medical conditions get ignored.

far more important medical conditions.

still, this 32 yo who died on a bathroom floor whilst being neglected, died so that we could devote billions of dollars of resources to ensuring we dont have too many

'catastrophic deaths of 90 yo dementia patients in nursing homes"

This nation has been gripped by fevers of many kinds for many years now....

Just saying....

UnSubRocky wrote on May 17^th, 2021 at 5:28pm:


Happy to be a burden on the economy... thank you for asking... when you get to be born and grow up in a filthy industrial town and suffer lifelong nasal and chest problems - which surprisingly we tough old bastards handle well until we get older - you know - First Grade Rugby, Military, no job too tough, one muff not enough... then you might have some idea.

You'll never come close in your lifetime - that's a fact.

That's what doctors are paid for..... no likee - get out of the job you took an oath to do, bitch.  Women are notoriously the worst doctors when it comes to self-interest - and often practice for 10-12 years after that expensive education and have the most amazing sense of self-entitlement ... wonder why anyone bothers to employ most of them.

Feminism and Twerpism are the two gravest dangers to Western Civilisation at this time.... but it looks like the Chinese will fix your sense of entitlement for you...

UnSubRocky wrote on May 17^th, 2021 at 11:10pm:



Absolutely impossible beyond any doubt... as I said - you have no idea in reality.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on May 18^th, 2021 at 3:26pm:


Oh, I do think that I have experienced more hell than anyone who lives outside a war zone, works in emergency services, or lives in poverty. But, if you went to Vietnam and saw combat, I guess you would have seen more than I have. But, I doubt that you have seen a violent murder take place in front of you, like I have seen.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on May 18^th, 2021 at 8:56pm:


It's killed close to 4 million people globally, since March 2020, cf c. 400,000 for a severe flu season....so yes, its real.

Governments  everywhere should have locked down the non-essential economy, and authorized central banks to change the digits in the bank accounts of laid off workers, to enable them to pay essential living expenses, for as long as necessary ie until the population was widely vaccinated.

But mainstream economists are still banging on about government deficits resulting from covid rescue packages which will burden taxpayers for a generation...when currency-issuing governments don't NEED to tax or borrow from the private sector (see MMT), least of all  in a pandemic when economic activity  is reduced by design (to limit spread of the virus).