In short:
Queensland's ambulance ramping crisis has been further exposed by frustrated frontline pandemics.
asserted
crisis → expose → pandemics
Halfway through the Crisafulli government's first-term, data shows ramping figures have only slightly improved since they took office.
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they → show → office
Health minister Tim Nicholls says the government remains hopeful of getting statewide ambulance ramping below 30 per cent before October 2028.
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government → say → October
Frontline paramedics have laid bare Queensland's ambulance ramping crisis, spending entire 12-hour shifts with patients stuck outside overcrowded public hospital emergency departments, unable to respond to "lights and sirens" cases in the community.
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paramedics → lay → community
They have vented their frustration to ABC News at being unable to offload patients to emergency departments within the recommended 30 minutes, while potentially life-threatening cases can languish for hours just waiting for an ambulance.
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cases → vent → ambulance
It comes as an investigation is underway into the case of a 51-year-old man, with chest pains, living just a few streets away from Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane's south, who paramedics found dead about two hours after he called Triple Zero (000) last weekend.
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he → come → south
At the halfway mark of the Crisafulli Government's first-term, paramedics have shared videos and photos showing row upon row of ambulances parked outside hospitals to highlight the extent of the crisis.
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paramedics → share → crisis
The latest data for August shows that across Queensland's top 26 public hospitals, 42 per cent of ambulance patients wait more than 30 minutes before they can be transferred off stretcher into the care of the emergency department — a practice known as ramping.
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they → show → ramping
That is only slightly better than the 43.9 per cent figure in the August before the LNP Government was elected in October 2024.
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Government → elect → October
But a deep dive into the new ambulance ramping data shows some key public hospitals are faring significantly worse under the Crisafulli Government, which pledged to cut statewide ramping to under 30 per cent by the 2028 state poll.
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which → show → poll
They include Cairns, Mackay, Gladstone, Caboolture, Toowoomba, The Prince Charles Hospital, and the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
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They → include → Cairns
The worst hospitals in the state are in the Metro South region, where at Logan, Redland and the QEII hospitals, more than 60 per cent of patients arriving by ambulance were ramped for more than half an hour in August.
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cent → arrive → August
QEII had the highest Queensland ramping rates for the month at 64.8 per cent.
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QEII → have → cent
'System that's not working well'
Metro South is the health region which services Annerley, the suburb where the man was found dead, alone at home, by paramedics, about two hours after calling Triple Zero last Saturday night.
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man → work → Zero
His family only found out about the ambulance delay through media reports on Thursday.
United Workers Union state secretary Fiona Scalon said Metro South hospitals had been ambulance ramping "hot spots" in recent months.
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hospitals → find → months
"Ramping is entirely a symptom of a hospital system that's not working well,"Ms Scalon said.
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Scalon → work → system
"For our members, who are paramedics in the field, it's kind of demoralising for them to be sitting at a hospital with the care of a patient when they should be out in the community dealing with people in need who haven't been assessed yet.
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who → sit → need
"It's common knowledge that the longer someone waits to receive treatment, if they're in need, the more drastic the implications could be.
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implications → wait → need
It's not good to have people waiting for that care."
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people → have → care
A Metro South-based paramedic, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he sometimes worked entire shifts of 10 or 12 hours where he would spend his working day ramped with one patient at a hospital.
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he → base → hospital
"That does occur not too infrequently," he said.
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he → occur → ?
Loading..."You'll hear the workload in the community is very high.
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workload → load → community
It just means we know there's people out there who genuinely need an ambulance critically and they are not receiving that care.
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they → mean → care
On the day the ABC spoke to this paramedic, he was ramped with a patient at Logan Hospital, south of Brisbane, for five hours.
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he → speak → hours
Speaking before the Annerley man's death, he said there were instances where Code 1 "lights and sirens response" cases waited two or three hours in the community before paramedics could get to them.
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paramedics → speak → them
"The system is overwhelmed and not coping properly,"the paramedic said.
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paramedic → cop → ?
His comments were echoed by a paramedic based in the Metro North region.
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comments → echo → region
"Some people spend their whole shift on the ramp," he said.
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he → spend → ramp
"There are some patients that are quite abusive towards us."
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that → be → us
In a response to questions about response times, the Queensland Ambulance Service said: "While we are the busiest ambulance service in the country and getting busier, we have improved response times to the most critically ill patients in the past year.
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we → say → year
We acknowledge the concerns of our paramedics that stem from increasing demand on the health system."
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that → acknowledge → system
Government remains hopeful
In an exclusive interview with the Health Minister, Mr Nicholls refused to concede getting statewide ambulance ramping below 30 per cent by the October 2028 was impossible, despite record numbers of people attending Queensland emergency departments, the aging population and soaring levels of chronic disease.
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getting → remain → disease
"I'm hopeful that we'll get there and it's not blind hope,"he said.
"
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it → get → ?
It's much higher than we'd like.
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we → like → ?
There's more work to be done but the trend is showing that we are having an impact.
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we → be → impact
"So we keep working at it."
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we → keep → it
Asked whether he would resign from Cabinet if he failed to reach the premier's target, he said: "Let's see how we go first.
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we → ask → target
Time will tell, but we are working like fury to do it.
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we → tell → it
"
Mr Nicholls said the Federal Government also needed to do its bit, given 1,400 patients in Queensland public hospitals were waiting for an aged care placement or National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) support.
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patients → say → placement
"The federal government's failing to provide the aged care and the NDIS care that those Australians need," he said.
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he → fail → that
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia