With statewide ambulance response times increasing by nearly 10 minutes in their time in office, the minority Liberal Government must urgently get to work to address the health crisis.
Ambulance response times are getting worse and ramping is out of control, with ambulances spending 31,000 hours stuck on a ramp in the nine months to March.
It means that Ambulance Tasmania staff are being rostered to the ramp, resulting in staff shortages and unfilled shifts when they should be out in the community helping patients in need.
A ten-minute wait is an eternity when you’re having a heart attack, or when your child is seriously ill, or when an elderly person is lying on the floor in pain with a fractured hip.
These examples are a damning reflection of the state of Tasmania’s health system, and a damning reflection of the Rockliff Government’s priorities for Tasmania.
The Health and Community Services Union has suggested to Premier and Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff that he hold a ramping crisis summit to start finding a solution to this problem.
It is clear that after 10 years in government, the Premier is out of ideas to fix ramping.
Labor’s Right Priorities Plan provides practical solutions to take pressure off the state’s four main hospitals and reduce ramping by increasing access to health services closer to where people live and funding more ambulance paramedics.
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
