Health Minister Blair Boyer has released latest ramping figures saying the busy winter period saw growth in demand across the health system leading to more ramping at South Australian hospitals compared to last month.

Ramping hours during July 2026 were below 2025 and 2024 levels and improvements continued in ambulance response times.

The total number of ramping hours in July 2026 was 5,434 hours, a 7.4 per cent decrease, or 432 fewer hours, compared with July 2025, and 1.9 per cent lower than July 2024.

But ramping hours increased by 13.9 per cent from last month with Boyer attributing the figure to an increase in emergency department presentations, triple zero calls and ambulance transports as winter illnesses increase.

Boyer said patient flow was affected by a record number of older South Australians waiting for federally funded aged care placements. Currently, 466 older people remain in metropolitan hospitals and other SA Health facilities despite being medically ready for discharge.

Across the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN), ramping was down by 19.8 per cent in July 2026 compared with the same period last year.

You might like

Business

State’s biggest polluters to face emissions review

News

Multi-storey apartment plans for prestigious city terrace

The largest reduction was again recorded at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH), where ramping fell by 30.3 per cent, from 1,008 hours in July 2025 to 703 hours in July 2026.

You might like

Business

State’s biggest polluters to face emissions review

News

Multi-storey apartment plans for prestigious city terrace

“I’ve been fortunate to visit many hospitals and health care facilities across South Australia over the past four and a half months, and I cannot overstate how impressed I am on each visit by the dedication of our staff,” Boyer said.

“Whether they are answering a Triple Zero call, treating a patient in an emergency department or supporting someone through their recovery, they are making a difference every single day.”

Australian Medical Association SA President Professor Peter Subramaniam said Boyer was right to commend doctors and clinicians who “are making difficult decisions every day” but none of the latest figures “indicates that we’re on top of the problems”.

“For example, to defer planned surgery so that we can keep the system safe and I think we want to acknowledge that that is professionalism under pressure,” he said. 

“Any improvement that we have, even if it’s on year on year, these are just incremental trends, and we’ve got to be a bit careful about interpreting it as the system keeping up with demand.”

He reiterated that improving access to GP services before people reach the ramp was crucial to “treat the cause and not the queue”.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) also recorded an improvement, with a 13.8 per cent improvement, from 1,775 hours in July 2025 to 1,530 hours in July 2026.

In July 2026, ambulances reached 76.9 per cent of Priority 1 cases within the target timeframe of eight minutes, compared with 68 per cent in July 2025.

Ambulances reached 58.1 per cent of Priority 2 cases within the target 16-minute timeframe in July 2026, compared with 54.2 per cent in July 2025.

Overall ramping hours have decreased across the system by 6.9 per cent (2165 fewer hours) in 2026 compared to the same time last year.

Emergency department presentations were up by 4.6 per cent compared with July 2025 and by 4.1 per cent compared with June 2026.

Liberal Shadow Health Minister Jack Batty said the figures were “deeply disappointing” for South Australians who were promised ramping would be fixed when the Malinauskas government was elected in 2022.

“It has taken Blair Boyer just 135 days as Health Minister to oversee the third worst month of ambulance ramping in South Australian history,” Batty said.

“South Australians deserve a health system that works when they need it most. Instead, they’re getting excuses and spin while the crisis continues.”