News
29th July, 2019
Ambulance Ramping
Over recent months crews have raised numerous concerns about lack of bed availability at emergency departments, leading to long delays at hospitals for both emergency and non-emergency ambulance crews.
Ambulance ramping leads to crews remaining stuck in hospital corridors while they wait to offload patients. Often the patient is uncomfortable and the crew is unable to return to the road and respond to cases in the community.
This can be due to understaffing at hospitals over weekends, where patients are unable to be discharged from hospital without being assessed by allied health staff such as physiotherapists.
Ambulance ramping was a major issue for the Napthine Liberal Government, who refused to deal with the problem in the lead up to the 2014 Victorian State Election. The Andrews Government made several election commitments around fixing the ambulance ramping crisis, which has significantly reduced the off-stretcher times at hospitals. However we are still seeing ramping occur during peak times, particularly at a number of smaller rural hospitals.
It is important that we continue to raise Ambulance ramping with Government so that steps can be taken to improve hospital off stretcher times and free up crews to respond to cases in the community.
Please keep the VAU informed of cases of Ambulance ramping as it is occurring. We are meeting with the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Jenny Mikakos next week. This information will be provided to highlight the pressing need for Government action.
In Solidarity,