Ambulance ramping times soar

THE number of Queenslanders waiting in ambulances at hospitals for urgent care has soared more than 25 per cent under the Palaszczuk government.

More than 30 per cent of category-two patients with life-threatening injuries were not seen within clinically recommended times in the final three months of 2022 as emergency physicians grappled burnout and fatigue.

The rate of ramping – patients waiting on a stretcher for more than half an hour – improved from 44 per cent to 41 per cent in the last quarter, but this overall figure rose steadily over the decade.

It climbed from 13.5 per cent in December 2014 – fewer than two months before the Palaszczuk government came to power.

But every category-one patient was seen within clinically recommended times in the last quarter despite an increase in demand, and the total median wait time was 16 minutes – three minutes faster than the 19 minutes reported in 2014-15 Newman government budget papers.

The Australian Medical Association Queensland said there were myriad causes leading to stretched emergency departments and patients being left waiting in the back of ambulances.

Elderly patients clogging hospital beds as they wait for aged-care vacancies, hospitals operating at capacity and unable to cope with surges in demand, an inability to rapidly move patients known to the system through stages of care, and a lack of funding – these are issues symptomatic of an underperforming health sector, according to AMAQ president Maria Boulton.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the Queensland Health and Hospitals Plan was producing shorter ED wait times.