The State Government is committing an additional $58 million into the SA Ambulance Service in this year’s State Budget to improve ambulance response times. The funding will goes towards an electronic patient care record system, building more ambulance stations, and expand a key hospital avoidance team.
A significant portion of the budget, $23.5 million over two years, will introduce an electronic patient care record (ePCR) system for the first time. The system will provide ambulance crews with electronic devices to record patient information directly, removing the need for handwritten notes and subsequent data entry by support staff.
Connecting with the hospitals’ Sunrise electronic medical record system, the new ePCR system will make work and communication between ambulance and hospital staff more efficient, ensuring faster access to patient records, which is crucial in emergencies and helping ambulance crews return to service more quickly.
The ePCR devices will be rolled out from mid-2025, covering over 500 ambulance vehicles, including emergency and patient transport ambulances, MedSTAR, Special Operations Team vehicles, and the light ambulance fleet.
The budget will also allocate $24 million to build three new ambulance stations in Marion, Two Wells, and Whyalla. These new stations will replace the existing Marion and Whyalla facilities, providing modern, fit-for-purpose spaces for ambulance crews, better serving local communities.
Two Wells will receive its first-ever ambulance station, catering to the growing region currently served by crews from Mallala and Gawler stations, with construction expected to start early next year and completion anticipated for 2026. These additions will bring the total number of new or rebuilt ambulance sites to 15 under the Malinauskas Labor Government.
Lastly within the budget, the government is committing $10.7 million to expand the Clinical Telephone Assessment (CTA) service. This service, staffed by highly skilled Paramedic Telehealth Clinicians, assesses when an emergency response is needed versus when patients need to see their regular health care providers, or be referred to other suitable services.
Currently, the CTA team can only manage about a third of the cases that could benefit from telehealth assessment, saving approximately 350 unnecessary ambulance transports each month.
With the increased funding, SAAS will train and employ 16 more clinicians, potentially doubling the number of unnecessary ambulance callouts saved each month. Recruitment and training will begin immediately, with half of the additional clinicians joining the team later this year, and the full 16 on board by mid-2025.
“Our investments, including hiring 219 extra ambos in our first two years in Government, have dramatically turned around response times so that thousands more patients are being reached by paramedics quicker in their time of need,” Premier Peter Malinauskas says.
“We are giving our ambulance service the tools it needs to deliver life-saving care to patients in emergencies.
“These three new stations for Marion, Two Wells and Whyalla mean our Government is now delivering a total of 15 brand-new ambulance sites for South Australians, with the first of our new metro stations – at Norwood – due to open soon.
“We’re also bringing ambulance patient care records into the 21st Century to deliver more streamlined patient care.”
More News
