Queensland’s Ambulance Ramping Crisis Rated Worst In The Country

Queensland's ambulance ramping crisis continues to escalate with the latest data revealing the sunshine state has the worst stats in the country.

The Queensland Ambulance Service figures show patients waited on average about 30 minutes in an ambulance before being admitted to hospital during December.

The stats reported that ramping in highly populated areas, particularly in south-east Queensland, rose to more than 46 per cent of all patients, between November and December 2021.

QLD Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates told Australia Today's Steve Price that Queenslanders are saturated with images of ambulances and police queued up at hospitals, with stories of patients waiting hours for care.

The shadow health minister told Steve, that "patients are dying on the ramp".

"Make no mistake, it’s not the fault of the hard-working paramedics, they're the front line, they didn't sign up to sit on a ramp for hours and hours and hours," she said.

"They want to be out picking up your loved ones; your child having an asthma attack, your father having a heart attack, your grandmother falling over and breaking a hip"

Ms Bates, said that Queensland's long-unaddressed ramping issues could not be blamed on Covid.

"The only reason ambulances are ramping is because there are no beds in the hospital"

- Shadow Health Minister Bates

Opposition leader David Crisafulli said the figures obtained in state parliament were "deeply concerning".

“We’ve repeatedly put our solutions on the table, including real-time data monitoring, better resources for triaging, more beds and more funding on the front line. Lives are on the line here," he urged.

With clogged emergency departments, too few beds and an exodus of burnt-out staff, AMA Queensland spokesperson Dr Kim Hansen said it was the worst Emergency doctors had seen.

“There’s been a surge in patients this year – most hospitals are seeing record numbers and the just don’t have the staff or beds to cope,” Dr Hansen said.

“The system was already at full capacity and now it's swamped.”

Dr Hansen said reports of patients stuck for hours in waiting rooms and ramped ambulances were unfortunately common.

“Emergency departments are the canary in the coalmine,” she said. “They bear the burden when other parts of the health system are over capacity.”

“It’s awful, like putting a Band Aid on a stab wound.”

- Dr Hansen

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