Margaret River’s St John Ambulance speaks out on ramping and hospital transfers

The region’s volunteer ambulance workers have opened up about increasing workloads and hours spent idle outside regional hospitals as part of an ongoing inquiry into WA’s ambulance services. In a submission from Margaret River St John Ambulance sub-centre chairman Frank Edwards, the former veteran City of Perth chief executive said the local service was under the greatest workload experienced in its 87 years. As ambulance ramping outside of hospitals worsened, including at Bunbury, Mr Edwards outlined that hours spent by volunteers tied up waiting for transfers meant additional volunteers were forced into the field to fill the gaps – and two ambulance crews with two officers each were needed at major emergencies, including vehicle crashes. But the increase in ambulances needed to transfer patients to other hospitals from Margaret River was identified as the key issue of concern. “There appears to have been a significant increase in the demand for inter-hospital transfers where the local hospital requires the patient to be transported to Bunbury Regional Hospital, usually, or Busselton District Hospital, and at times, the return of patients to the Margaret River District Hospital,” Mr Edwards noted. “The length of time that the first crew is away can frequently be extended by ‘ambulance ramping’ at the receiving hospital. “This adds considerable burden to volunteers to respond to an emergency call out when not ‘on roster’.” Volunteers were also required to complete 40 training sessions per year to maintain credentials, while fundraising remained part of the financial cocktail keeping the sub-centre running. The Times has previously aired concerns from local doctors about the dramatic rise in inter-hospital transfers, the knock-on effect for unpaid volunteers, and slow motion on a State Government commitment to fund more full-time paid paramedics in the Capes region. Those reports included a call last month from Opposition leader Mia Davies and health spokeswoman Libby Mettam demanding a budget commitment to enact a long-awaited masterplan expansion for Margaret River Hospital which would increase surgical capacity, thus easing the workload on St John volunteers. Ms Mettam reiterated that call this week after speaking out about some of the worst ramping numbers to-date Statewide. “Bunbury Regional Hospital has recorded a staggering 93.2 hours of ambulance ramping, the second-worst on record, which is more evidence of a health system that is being stretched to its limits,” she told the Times. “Ambulance response times are also at dangerous levels, the worst on record across the State, again because of the delays of dealing with patients in our over-stretched hospital system, despite significantly lower COVID-positive patients than predicted and two years to prepare our health system.” Ms Mettam said record iron ore surpluses should be invested in the system immediately. Mr Edwards said ramping placed “greater demand on a small number of volunteer ambulance officers who may have to provide up to three crews simultaneously while a transfer is in progress”.