Newly published evidence provided to the Parliamentary Inquiry into ambulance ramping has shown how ramping has skyrocketed under the Liberals, and detailed first-hand the devastating impact on patients and healthcare professionals.
The Liberals have been notoriously secretive about ambulance ramping and the extent of its impact on Tasmanians, but this inquiry has managed to extract some shocking new data.
These new figures show that in just eight years the number of patients ramped on admission to Tasmania’s hospitals has grown from 3,800 to over 21,000 people a year.
The figures also show Tasmanians spent 36,700 hours ramped in 2022/23 – a number 16 times higher than the 2015/16 result of 2,300 hours ramped.
With ramping spiralling out of control under a succession of Liberal Health Ministers, it’s no wonder the inquiry is hearing so many distressing personal stories. Dozens of paramedics have shared their harrowing experiences, with yet more new submissions showing the devastating consequences of ramping for patients and healthcare staff alike.
This is not just a health care crisis, it’s a massive Work Health and Safety fail and placing hard working health care professionals at serious risk.
Every year since the Liberals won government they’ve said they’ve got ambulance ramping under control, but their own figures show every year things have become worse. While healthcare staff struggle to care for patients under terrible circumstances, the government still has its head in the sand.
The Greens understand that urgent action is needed to address both the causes and effects of ambulance ramping, and we will keep fighting to make the Liberals finally wake up, to take this seriously, and to act.
Key excerpts from submissions made by paramedics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jW8mxseQyl7zkHBcTo4fONZBSLAtWah/view?u...
Graph created by the Greens using data provided by the government in response to a request from the ambulance ramping inquiry - page 6 of this document: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/77223/DoH-...
