‘New thinking’: Australian Medical Association SA reveals ramping recommendations
Recommendations to assist in alleviating the ramping crisis have been put forward to Health and Wellbeing Minister Chris Picton. See the recommendations.
A list of recommendations was sent to Health and Wellbeing Minister Chris Picton on July 8, following a round table hosted by the Australian Medical Association in South Australia (AMA SA) in May. The aim is to improve patients’ access to care at home and avoid emergency presentations.
Participants at the round table included Picton, AMA SA representatives, and more than 30 leaders of the state’s health system in industries like public and private hospital sectors, general practice, aged care, mental healthcare and the South Australian Ambulance Service.
InDaily can reveal the recommendations put forward to Picton include:
- Establishing an SA Health 12-month Action Plan to provide a roadmap for the delivery of effective, patient-focused care
- Providing GP clinics with physical and digital resources, including links to SA Health nurses and other health practitioners, to enable them to open after-hours, access timely advice from other specialists and streamline accurate discharge communication
- Reviewing outpatient services, including creating a statewide e-referral ‘front door’ for outpatient care
- Improving aged-care coordination and communication, including in capitalising on Advance Care Directives to prevent unwanted transfers to hospital.
Some of the recommendations will require “new thinking, different funding models and significant reforms to how services are designed and delivered”, former AMA SA president and committee of General Practice Chair Dr John Williams said.
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“It was clear the participants joined us in wanting to propose and consider viable solutions to support the system and our patients – not to engage in pointless and divisive blame games,’ Dr Williams said.
“We each brought our experiences of a system that we heard does pose barriers to patients finding the care they need and to clinicians doing their jobs in providing that care.
“We heard strong support for a system that is better at sharing information and that is funded so general practice can keep people healthier in their communities and out of hospital.”
AMA SA president Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam said during the round table, “there was overwhelming agreement that more can be done to support patients in their homes and communities” to avoid trips to EDs and hospitals.
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“At a time of enormous stress on the health system, we offer these recommendations to support SA Health and others we know are trying extremely hard to help South Australians access the care they need and deserve,” Professor Subramaniam said.
“During the round table discussions, participants shared ideas and programs – some newly developed, others successfully implemented elsewhere – that they suggested could be adopted in this state, along with proposals for scaling up existing innovations.”
The round table follows the release of AMA’s latest ramping report card in April, which found the total time South Australians have spent waiting outside hospitals has tripled in five years.
The 2025 Ambulance Ramping Report Card found patients spent 45,399 hours ramped in 2023-24, an increase from 15,239 hours in 2019-20.
The state’s peak medical body says these figures equate to more than five years of lost time waiting for care.
The round table recommendations were reviewed and fine-tuned by Dr Williams, former CGP Chair Dr Bridget Sawyer and AMA SA Councillor and round table MC Dr Emily Kirkpatrick before they were presented to Picton last week.
Picton welcomes the round table recommendations and was “pleased” to take part in the discussions.
“I will continue to work with the AMA on these initiatives and others to help more people be able to access health care in a more timely way,” he told InDaily.
“This builds on so many community health initiatives that are already underway, such as rolling out nurse practitioners in general practice, community mental health centres and virtual care support for aged care.
“And that’s of course on top of the massive investment in our public hospital system, including 600 more beds and over 2,700 more clinicians hired above attrition.
“We also will seek to engage the Federal Government who have responsibility for General Practice and aged care.”
