Another man has died while waiting for an ambulance overnight, as the state's public health system is deemed "below the national average" by the Australian Medical Association.
The Ambulance Employees Association reported that the man in his 50s waited two hours for an ambulance to arrive last night.
As a priority two case, he should have been seen within 16 minutes.
The state government offered its condolences to the patient's family but said that once the patient was upgraded to a priority one, an ambulance arrived within eight minutes.
It is a triggering story for Amelia Farrow, whose father Tony Farrow died from a heart attack in January, after waiting more than 50 minutes for an ambulance.
Ms Farrow said her father had initially been deemed a priority two case and was later upgraded to priority one.
"Once he was upgraded, the ambulance came within 10 minutes. But I know the ambulance came from Campbelltown and my dad lived in Tungkillo. That's about a 50-kilometre drive," she said.
"Even though he did not live in a metropolitan area, there is no excuse. Whether it be metropolitan, regional or rural, an hour wait for an ambulance is not OK."
A South Australian Ambulance Service (SAAS) spokeswoman said a "do-not-resuscitate order was in place and CPR was ceased at the home".
SAAS confirmed it was undertaking investigations into the deaths of five people who died while waiting for an ambulance in the past fortnight.
Hospitals performing poorly
A recent report card by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has confirmed South Australian hospitals are performing below the national average.
The report found that only 50 per cent of "category 3" patients who attended emergency departments in SA were seen on time.
That was a marginal improvement from 2017–18, when only 48 per cent of those patients were seen on time.
Over the past four years, there has been no improvement to the number of emergency department visits completed in four hours or less, with the figure remaining at 61 per cent of cases.
When it comes to category 2 elective surgeries, 62 per cent of patients were seen within the recommended 90 days in South Australia, a 17 per cent drop compared with 2021.
AMA President Omar Khorshid said South Australia's public hospital system was not the worst in the country, but the report left much to be desired.
"In most cases, [South Australia] is not the worst, but that's nothing to be proud about," Dr Khorshid said.
He said the state government's focus should be on preventative health care reform to handle an ageing population and the rise of chronic diseases.
He also called on the federal government to increase its share of funding for public hospitals to 50 per cent, up from 45 per cent.
Labor and Liberals divided on report
Health Minister Stephen Wade tried to put a positive spin on the report card, pointing out that four years ago South Australia's health system was ranked the worst performing in the country on some key indicators.
He laid the blame squarely at the previous Labor government's feet.
"By the time Peter Malinauskas relinquished the health minister chair in 2018, we were the worst performing state in the nation," he said.
"What this report card shows is that, relatively, under the Liberal Marshall government we have improved. Now WA and Tasmania are below us on that indicator."
Mr Wade conceded there was "a long way to go".
"But the relative improvement is encouraging; it spurs us on to improve our public hospitals."
Labor leader Peter Malinauskas said his focus was on the future, with a "comprehensive plan" for the state's health system.
"Stephen Wade and Steven Marshall are celebrating their health system … well, let's put some facts on the table," he said.
"We know that ambulance response times have gone from 85 per cent on-time performance down to 33 per cent in the first two weeks of this year.
"One of the most fundamental responsibilities of a state government is that when people call triple-0, the emergency response arrives on time."
Deaths likely to continue, union says
The Liberal government is sticking to its 2018 election promise that it would "eradicate" ramping, while the Labor Party has promised to "fix the ramping crisis".
Mr Malinauskas defined that as bringing ramping back down to 2018 levels, which he said would take four years.
The Ambulance Employees Association has publicly thrown its support behind the Labor Party, though state secretary Leah Watkins today vowed the union would maintain public pressure on whichever party was elected.
"We absolutely will. And I predict there will be more deaths because there's been no injection to ambulance resourcing," she said.
Ms Watkins accepted fixing ramping would take time but said she would like to see results within "one to two months".
"You can't just employ paramedics and put them on the road within a week; it takes time to train staff," she said.
"In the meantime, I'd be very keen to sit down with whoever is elected to work out what are the emergency measures we can do right now that will start having an immediate effect within one to two months."
