Arabic version: تكدّس سيارات الإسعاف في مستشفيات جنوب أستراليا يبلغ مستوى قياسياً في أغسطس
According to ABC News, patients spent a record 5,891 hours ramped in ambulances outside South Australian public hospitals in August. The figure exceeded the previous high of 5,866 hours recorded in July 2025 and was released on the day an independent review said the state’s public health system had deteriorated in too many areas.
The SA Health Performance Council review, tabled in state parliament, found ramping had been “chronic” between 2022 and 2026. It said fewer than half of metropolitan patients were transferred from paramedics to emergency department staff within 30 minutes of ambulance arrival in 2024-25, compared with more than 92 per cent in 2014-15.
The council said it was unreasonable to expect ramping could ever be completely “fixed”, but recommended targets that were safe, sustainable and met community expectations. It said ramping would be at least “under control” if monthly hours fell to a pre-COVID level below 2,000. In a statement to Health Minister Blair Boyer, council chair Professor Stephen Duckett said SA Health needed to shift from a “micromanaging and siloed” culture to one that was strategic, connected and accountable.
The SA government said the health system was under more pressure than ever, citing emergency department presentations that had risen by more than 50 per cent over a decade and by almost 12 per cent between 2022 and 2025. Mr Boyer said August had been a very tough month and pointed to 483 patients waiting in hospital for residential aged care beds, up from 60 in October 2022. He said he would seek more aged care beds at a meeting with the federal health minister and state and territory counterparts on Friday.
Ambulance Employees Association general secretary Paul Ekkelboom called the record ramping hours excessive and said the government needed to address the barriers it identified. Opposition health and wellbeing spokesperson Jack Batty said the review showed ambulance response times had deteriorated, ramping remained chronic and emergency department delays were entrenched.
