The Hodgman Liberal Government is working to improve the performance of our major hospital Emergency Departments (ED), as set out in our Patients First Action Plan.

Since we took action to re-open the Ambulance Offload Unit at the Royal Hobart Hospital in September 2014, we have seen a significant and sustained improvement in rates of ambulance ramping.

I’m pleased to say that in 2016, the RHH has been maintaining this good performance even through the busy peak winter period.

For the first two months of winter this year, the number of ambulances ramped was significantly lower than the same periods in each of the preceding three years.

In fact, in June and July there were 241 fewer ambulances ramped compared to the same period 2013 – a reduction of almost 50 per cent.

Of course, the issue is never entirely addressed and there is still room for improvement – we do not consider any ramping to be the best outcome.

Instances of parked ambulances may be a sign of ramping during a busy period.

Either way, opportunistic photographs of parked ambulances should not be misused to damage confidence in our efforts to achieve these positive improvements and sustain them.

However, it is important to note that we are continuing to see significant improvements, which delivers real benefits to patients.

I would like to thank and congratulate our hardworking ED staff and paramedics for their continuing work together in this regard.

The government looks forward to continuing our work with them as we implement our actions under Patients First.

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