Ambulance "ramping"

has apparently reached record highs in this state. This is after the present government was elected on a promise to fix it. (For the uninitiated "ramping" is considered to occur when it takes more than thirty minutes to transfer a patient from an ambulance into the appropriate clinical care in the emergency department of the hospital.)

There was a very, very strong campaign run by the union which is responsible for ambulance workers. They had "Ash the Ambo" talking about it everywhere. Ambulances were written over with the message. Ambulance personnel were talking to patients about how bad things were...and how a change of government would help. 

Well yes, it has helped...to make the problem even worse. The problem is now much worse.

I had to call an ambulance more than once for the Senior Cat. On the occasions I did it they were genuinely needed. One was a "blues and two" type emergency...one I hope I never have to repeat in any other emergency. Going down the wrong side of a major road in peak hour traffic was definitely not "fun". It was terrifying.  On the two other occasions I told them we could wait but I could not lift him and neither could anyone else who was available lift him. We were concerned that there might be an injury.On one of those occasions the Senior Cat was outside in very hot sun and I said, "I'll try and keep some shade over him until you can get here." The response was something like "Thank you. Someone will be there shortly." The shortly was almost half an hour but they called me in between.

The ambulance officers who came were all, with one rather abrupt exception, kind and efficient.  The service was good. We were never ramped although we did have to wait once we were actually inside the hospital.

My godfather was not so lucky. At 98 he had a "stroke" at home. Fortunately someone else was there when it occurred. An ambulance got him to hospital but they were then ramped for almost three hours. Once in the hospital he spent over forty hours in the emergency department. He would have had no help at all had his daughter, a retired nurse, not gone in to be with him. He spent that time lying on a gurney in the corridor of our so-called state of the art brand new hospital. He has since moved into aged care.

I have been into the emergency department there more than once. It has always been overcrowded and the staff have always looked, at best, harassed. The area is much too small and it is understaffed. This may seem as if I am saying what is true of emergency departments everywhere but the general view of the medical profession is that this is a design fault. It has been so much the view there are now real efforts being made to find a way of expanding the area available. It seems the medical profession was not consulted about the likely size needed.

When we now add to this the increasing number of people who attend emergency departments for minor issues which could be dealt with elsewhere there is a growing problem. Add yet another layer of people who cannot see a GP or afford to see a GP and there is an even greater problem.

I didn't hold out much hope yesterday when someone called me saying, "Mum won't call you tomorrow. They just called me...suspected fracture. She's in an ambulance waiting at the hospital. I'm coming down. I'll let you know as soon as I can."

There's a message on my phone this morning. "Still waiting..." It was sent at around ten at night. Her daughter had travelled almost four hours to get there. (Her mother phones me each morning at the same time, just lets the phone ring four times and hangs up. It's a short term thing after her last trip to hospital.)

It's something I don't need to worry about today...but I wish I did have to listen for it. Perhaps people should not have been listening to "Ash the Ambo". A woman in her 80s should not have to wait that long or depend on family to help at the hospital.