The latest Productivity Commission figures on ambulance services paint a grim picture for Tasmania, and reinforce the evidence the ambulance ramping inquiry has heard about this serious issue.
The Report on Government Services data showed:
- More than 4400 emergency incidents waited longer than 35 minutes for an ambulance across the year – more than one every two hours.
- Median emergency response times around the state reached a new all time high of 14.5 minutes
- 90th percentile emergency response times also reached record levels, now sitting at 34.7 minutes
- Hobart has seen 90th percentile emergency response times increase by a massive 10 minutes in just five years
Despite these appalling figures, the data shows the FTE number of paramedics in the state has increased by just six people. Worse still, overall there’s fewer staff and few volunteers working in ambulance services.
This new information is the latest chapter in a shameful trend for the Liberals. After ten years in government, their legacy is that more Tasmanians are being put at greater risk in an emergency.
Paramedics and patients are calling out for help as ambulance wait times skyrocket further. The massive increase in ambulance ramping and chronic understaffing are having a major impact, but the Premier and Health Minister seem intent on ignoring the problem.
It’s been nearly a year since the Government received the final report of a review it commissioned into ambulance services. The report projected ambulance response times would keep increasing if the Liberals did nothing, and that’s exactly what has happened – but things are getting worse even faster than predicted.
The Rockliff Government’s own expert review recommended that to keep ambulance response times from blowing out further, 87 more staff needed to be employed by July next year. Instead of ambitious and urgent action to meet this requirement, the Liberals have done nothing.
While the Liberals are clearly incapable or unwilling to act to make our community safer, the Greens are committed to this issue as a key priority. We urge all our parliamentary colleagues to step up the fight for more investment in critical health services, and for staff to be treated with the respect they deserve.
