21 March 2023
SA Parliament would legislate targets for ambulance response times and require the Government to report against these, under a Greens bill to be introduced this week.
“Ending the ramping crisis was the centrepiece of Labor’s election campaign, yet one year on ambulances are still spending far too long stuck outside hospitals”, said Greens SA Health Spokesperson Robert Simms MLC.
“Without clear, legislated targets it’s impossible to measure success and ensure that our health system is getting the resources it needs.”
“The targets in the bill are based on the KPIs in the South Australian Ambulance Service’s Annual Report. Neither Labor nor Liberal Governments have consistently met these in recent years. This bill would ensure that the state has clear targets, based on best practice to work towards. The Government would then be held to account for their performance against these. This transparency and accountability is desperately needed if we are to get our health system back on track.”
The bill will require the State Government to ensure that the SA Ambulance Service is meeting its targets of responding to Priority 1 cases within 8 minutes 60% of the time and Priority 2 cases within 16 minutes 95% of the time (within major population centres). It will require the Minister for Health to publicly report each month (in the Parliament and online) on the performance against these targets, and what measures are being taken to achieve them. The bill also requires the Minister to immediately advise the public when the ambulance service is at capacity.