New minister faces ramping results
The newly-appointed Health Minister has fronted the media for the first time over ramping, revealing surprising figures.
South Australians spent 134 more hours ramped in March 2026 compared to February 2026, with fewer hours ramped per day on average, according to SA Health data released today.
March saw 3750 hours ramped compared to February’s 3616, with the Lyell McEwin Hospital facing the most significant increase of paitents spending 340 more hours ramped than the same time last year.
Compared to March 2025, overall ramping hours fell by 9.3 per cent – the equivalent of 384 fewer hours lost on the ramp.
Health Minister Blair Boyer – who was appointed in late March – said the reduction came from improvements at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, despite triple zero calls and emergency department presentations being higher than in the same period last year.
“We always want to see ramping hours decrease, and we are investing in every way possible to help drive that number down,” Boyer said.
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“When we see pressure points such as on the Lyell McEwin Hospital, it helps inform our decisions for future investment.”
Boyer said he has spent his first two weeks in the role reading “mountains of information” about the health system and his aim was to get ramping “down as far as we can”.
“We’ve made it clear that we aren’t making the same commitment we made last time.
“I was asked that as the campaign spokesperson before the election. I’ve been asked that since, as the now Minister for Health, and so has the Premier. I’ve been pretty frank in all those interviews I’ve done about the fact that we didn’t achieve what we said we wanted to [but it] wasn’t for lack of investment.”
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Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Professor Peter Subramaniam said: “If you look on a daily basis it is lower than February…but 3750 ramping hours is still a system under pressure”.
He said the long weekend in March would have also affected the numbers by creating additional pressure on an already strained system.
“My commentary alone does not get a patient off the ramp or into the right care setting; this is about a whole of system restructure.
“We’ve got a government that has been elected on a very strong mandate to address this problem and as we’ve been saying, invest in community care, increase access to GP care, fixing the range of aged care issues …providing structural reform will improve patient flow.
“While it’s important that we discuss the ramping figures, we also need to spend an equal amount of time discussing the solutions and putting them in place to fix this.”
Subramaniam said he looked forward to meeting with Boyer about the issue, and reiterated the platform AMA released ahead of the state election, including expanding access to GP appointments and scrapping payroll tax for private medical practices.
Liberal Shadow Health Minister Jack Batty said South Australia had “a new minister, but the same broken system”.
“We don’t want more excuses, we want outcomes,” Batty said.
“The new minister must explain what he will do differently, because right now the system is broken and Labor has failed to fix it like it promised.
“Labor must deliver a better health system. South Australian lives depend on it.”
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