Paramedics refute premier's ambulance ramping claim; report 'chronic' bed block at Shoalhaven Hospital

When quizzed on Shoalhaven Hospital during a visit to Nowra this week, the Premier denied there was any issues in the system.

"We have the strongest health system in the country," he said.

"The issues that you're seeing in other states in relation to ramping don't occur in NSW, because what we are seeing here in our country is health ministers from around the country asking NSW how it's done."

However, evidence from paramedics on the ground tells a very different story.

The Australian Paramedics Association NSW has reported instances of ramping at Shoalhaven Hospital holding up almost all of the city's local ambulances at once.

Ambulance ramping is also known as 'bed block'.

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APA NSW delegate and paramedic Brett Simpson said local paramedics have reported instances of 'chronic' bed block at hospitals through the Shoalhaven and Illawarra.

"The Premier's claim that ramping does doesn't exist is completely, utterly untrue," he said.

"Illawarra-Shoalhaven LHD hospitals - Wollongong, Shellharbour and Shoalhaven - have some of the most chronic bed block in New South Wales.

"It's not uncommon to have up to 10 ambulances waiting multiple hours at Wollongong, and the same at Shoalhaven and Shellharbour - they can even be worse.

"We can have almost every ambulance for that region stuck at Shoalhaven [Hospital] at the same time."

According to the latest data from the Bureau of Health Information, Shoalhaven Hospital emergency department is among the worst performing.

Half (49.7 per cent) of all ED patients started treatment on time during the last quarter of 2022.

Of the patients who arrived by ambulance, 47.1 per cent were brought in to a emergency department bed within the target timeframe of 30 minutes.

The median wait time to transfer care was 32 minutes; waits of up to 2 hours and 20 minutes topped the scale.

Just under half (47.1 per cent) of all patients left the ED in the target timeframe of four hours.

Most spent around 4 hours and 41 minutes, while the longest stay recorded was 15 hours and 31 minutes.

The state government previously announced it would recruit 10,142 full time health staff across the state over the next four years - 3,800 would be for regional and rural areas.

While APA said it welcomed the staffing investment in the state budget, it maintained that nurse-to-patient ratios and pay increases would be needed to attract those recruits, and keep health workers in NSW.

Mr Simpson said a pay rise of more than 15 per cent would be needed for paramedics, who often move interstate for better pay and conditions.

"What we're finding is because our pay in NSW is so poor compared to other states, a lot of those trainees and our qualified paramedics are leaving, to go to Queensland or Victoria where they could be earning up to $20,000 or $30,000 more per year," he said.

"So we're training a lot of staff, but we're also losing a lot of qualified and brand new paramedics to other jurisdictions."

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