AMA Tasmania Submission Transfer of Care Delays (Ambulance Ramping)

Ambulance ramping is unacceptable. The role of Ambulance Officers and Paramedics is to respond to emergencies in the community, not to be an additional healthcare worker minding a patient on an ambulance stretcher in a corridor or in an ambulance due to an inability of an Emergency Department (ED) to admit those patients. We know other Tasmanians risk having their health impacted if they do not receive timely ambulance care because of ambulances being ramped. Having said that, ramping in our EDs is only the symptom of a far greater problem that extends across the entirety of the healthcare system. The simple reason ambulances are ramped and unable to transfer care is because there are not enough inpatient hospital beds for the number of patients needing admission. The result is patients being ramped in the ED waiting for an ED bed to be seen and assessed, which are, in turn, blocked by admitted patients waiting for the insufficient number of available inpatient beds.