Ambulances Are Late for Less Urgent Patients in South Australia

It is Thursday, July 16, 2026, at 6:01 pm.

The opposition party is unhappy with how long it takes for ambulances to arrive for less urgent patients.

In short:

The opposition party in South Australia found out that ambulances are taking too long to get to less urgent patients.

The data shows that not many ambulances are arriving on time for patients who are not in a life-threatening situation.

Earlier this month, the Health Minister said that ambulances were arriving faster for very urgent cases.

Most ambulances are not arriving on time for less urgent patients in South Australia.

The opposition party's health spokesperson said the government is not showing all the data about ambulance response times.

The spokesperson said, "This data is what the Labor party does not want you to see."

The spokesperson also said, "People in South Australia are waiting longer for an ambulance under the Labor party."

But the government said that all ambulance response times have improved since 2022.

The government said it has released the data for less urgent cases, but in a different way.

The data from the opposition party shows that not many ambulances are arriving on time for less urgent patients.

The Health Minister said that ambulances are arriving faster for very urgent cases.

The government said more ambulances are arriving on time for the most urgent patients.

When someone calls for an ambulance, the situation is checked to see how urgent it is.

For very urgent cases, ambulances should arrive within 8 minutes.

For urgent cases, ambulances should arrive within 16 minutes.

For less urgent cases, ambulances should arrive within 30 minutes or 1 hour.

If a patient does not get to the hospital on time, it is called ramping.

The opposition party's health spokesperson criticized the long wait times for less urgent patients.

The spokesperson said, "You don't have to be smart to know that just adding more ambulances will not fix the problem."

The government is defending its response times.

The Treasurer said that the response times for very urgent cases have improved a lot.

The Treasurer said, "The response times now are much better than they were under the previous government."

The Treasurer also said, "Ambulances are arriving on time for life-threatening situations."

The Treasurer defended the government's efforts to reduce wait times.

The Treasurer said the ambulance service has more resources than ever before.

The Treasurer said, "We are giving them more money, resources, staff, and training."

The secretary of the ambulance employees association said that the focus is on the most urgent cases.

The secretary said, "These cases are life-threatening and need to be treated first."

The secretary said that less urgent cases are not being treated as quickly as they should be.

The secretary said the ambulance service always needs more staff.

The secretary said that less urgent cases include patients with stomach pain, falls, and mental health issues.

The secretary said that during the worst days, some patients were dying because ambulances were not arriving on time.

The secretary said, "Some patients were dying when we arrived."

The secretary said the ambulance service needs to keep getting more staff and resources.

The secretary said, "We need more staff and resources to improve response times."

It is Thursday, July 16, 2026, at 6:01 pm.

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