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Ambulance Employees Association

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Ambulance Employees Association

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The AEA is South Australia’s union representing ambulance employees since 1981. Authorised P Ekkelboom

Authorised by Paul Ekkelboom, General Secretary Ambulance Employees Association of SA.

19/10/2026

Last night saw extreme ramping across Adelaide’s northern hospitals, particularly at Lyell McEwin Hospital and Modbury Hospital, leaving ambulance crews trapped on hospital ramps instead of responding to emergencies in the community.

At one point overnight, 30 Priority 2 (lights and sirens) emergency cases were waiting for an ambulance, with no available crews to send. These patients should have had an ambulance within 16 minutes, yet many were left waiting hours for help.

An elderly patient suffering active chest pain remained ramped at Lyell McEwin Hospital for more than eight hours while ambulances remained tied up outside emergency departments.

Our members in Triple Zero and ambulance coordination spent the night managing an ever-growing list of emergency calls while critical cases remained uncovered for hours because there were simply no ambulance resources available to send. Many described the situation as soul-destroying.

This is the real impact of ramping. When ambulances cannot offload patients, they cannot respond to the next emergency.

Urgent and immediate intervention is needed to free up hospital capacity and return ambulance crews to the community where they belong.

South Australians should not be left waiting hours for a lights and sirens ambulance response because crews are trapped on hospital ramps.

🎥 Lyell McEwen Hospital 10pm Monday 19th October

19/10/2026

Chief Paramedic Officer, A big WIN for the Profession

The AEA has strongly advocated for a Chief Paramedic Officer (CPO), and we welcome this important step forward for our profession.

The CPO gives paramedicine a seat at the table within the broader health system, helping shape policy, governance, scope of practice, research, education and the future development of the profession. The CPO will sit within SA Health which joins the chief officers of nursing (etc) recognising the importance of the paramedicine profession and the significant value that paramedics provide to the community.

Paramedics are highly skilled clinicians whose expertise can contribute far beyond the traditional ambulance response model. The CPO can help unlock new models of care and career opportunities across both the public and private health systems, allowing paramedics to utilise their skills in a wider range of clinical settings including in regional and remote communities.

The long-term benefits also extend to patients and the broader health system. Earlier access to assessment and treatment, along with stronger referral and alternative care pathways, can help patients receive appropriate care without always requiring a hospital presentation.

That means better access to care for patients while helping address the capacity pressures facing our hospitals.
It also creates more diverse and sustainable career opportunities, helping make paramedicine a career for life.

The right care. The right time. The right place.
A stronger voice for paramedics, better options for patients and a stronger health system.

17/10/2026

🚑🏥 Today, the newly rebuilt Marion Ambulance Station was officially opened by Health Minister Blair Boyer.

Replacing the original station built in the 1960s, the new state of the art station provides a modern home for our hardworking paramedics and ambulance officers, who will begin operating from the station on Monday.

✅ The rebuild delivers on a key Government election commitment to upgrade and rebuild ambulance stations across South Australia, ensuring they can accommodate additional crews, meet growing demand for our services, and provide modern training and rest facilities for our members.

📢 The AEA also welcomes the Minister's announcement today that South Australia's first full-time Chief Paramedic Officer role will be advertised from Monday.

👀 More on that important and exciting announcement soon.

14/10/2026

🚑 AEA Position Statement on Ramping

Today, the AEA released its Position Statement on Ramping following extensive consultation with members from across the Ambulance Service.

The statement calls on all political parties and the State Government to commit to eliminating ramping through a coordinated, system-wide reform agenda.

Key priorities include increasing hospital and aged care capacity, expanding 24/7 hospital operations, improving patient discharge processes, expanding transit ward capacity, strengthening patient flow management, and investing in alternative care pathways.

The AEA's position is clear: Ramping is preventable, dangerous and unacceptable.

Ramping is a policy choice, not an inevitability. Every South Australian deserves timely access to emergency care.

📄 Read the full Position Statement on Ramping on our website www.aeasa.com.au

06/10/2026

September Figures Are Out... and It’s Another Record for This Government

The Government was elected on a promise to fix ramping. Instead, South Australia has recorded its highest August and highest September on record.

September saw 5,507 ambulance hours lost to ramping. Since the 2022 election, monthly ramping has never fallen below 2,637 hours.

This is no longer a crisis the Government can blame on winter, demand or circumstance. After four and a half years, this is its record.

In the early hours of this morning, 10 lights and sirens emergencies were waiting for an ambulance, with only three single responder resources available. Members reported overnight, up to 16 ambulances were ramped at Lyell McEwin Hospital, some for seven hours.

Only 51.4% of Priority 2 patients received an ambulance within the target time. Nearly one in every two emergency patients was left waiting longer than they should.

51.4% is a failure to deliver timely emergency care.

Every ambulance trapped on a hospital ramp is one less ambulance available for the next heart attack, stroke or life-threatening emergency. The Government is not carrying that risk. Patients, communities and exhausted ambulance workers are. The AEA’s position is that ramping compromises community safety and cannot be accepted as a necessary part of the health system.

The Premier asked South Australians to judge his Government on ramping.

This Government cannot keep making excuses and asking South Australians to accept failure as normal. It must take political responsibility and deliver a transparent plan with measurable targets, firm deadlines and real accountability.

No more excuses. No more records.

🚑 South Australians were promised better. They deserve better.

📷 LMH 3am 6/10/26

30/09/2026

🚨 The ramping crisis is becoming a response crisis.

As of 2:00pm today at the Royal Adelaide Hospital:

• 13 ambulances were ramped, with another 2 on the way.
• 87 ambulance cases were waiting for an ambulance response.
• 17 of those were Priority 2 lights and sirens cases.
• 12 Priority 2 patients had already waited longer than the 16-minute response time target.

Every ambulance stuck on a hospital ramp is an ambulance unavailable to respond to the next patient in the community.

The risk is no longer confined to hospital corridors. The risk is now being transferred to patients waiting for help in the community.

South Australians deserve better. Patients deserve timely care, and ambulance crews deserve a system that allows them to do the job they were trained to do.

21/09/2026

16 ambulances ramped at Lyell McEwen Hospital.

At one point today, 16 ambulance crews were stuck on the ramp at Lyell McEwen Hospital, with some waiting more than an hour simply to triage their patient.

That's 16 ambulances unavailable to respond to emergencies in our community.

When ambulance crews are forced to wait outside hospitals, those resources cannot be sent to the next patient suffering a heart attack, stroke, serious injury, or other time-critical emergency.

With Priority 2 response performance sitting at just 51%, well below the State Government's target, images like this demonstrate exactly why response times continue to suffer.

South Australians deserve better. Our patients deserve timely care, and our paramedics deserve to be back on the road doing what they were trained to do, not waiting in hospital corridors for hours at a time.

03/09/2026

August was the worst month of ambulance ramping ever recorded in South Australia, with ambulances ramped for 5,891 hours.

Every day during August, the equivalent of more than 15 fully crewed ambulances were unavailable for their entire 12-hour shifts because they were stuck on hospital ramps.

At the same time, in August only one in two patients received an ambulance on time for their life-threatening emergency with Priority 2 lights and sirens response times dropping to just 51%.

The Government has failed to fix the ramping crisis, with August 2026 recording the worst month of ambulance ramping ever seen in South Australia.

The Government must commit to eliminating ramping so ambulances can respond to South Australians in their time of need.

📷 Lyell McEwin Hospital, Friday 28 August 2026.

19/08/2026

This afternoon there was significant ramping across metropolitan hospitals. SA Ambulance Service was forced to enact an Incident Management Team due to its inability to send ambulances to triple zero calls.

At one point, more than 80 patients were left waiting for an ambulance, including around 40 priority cases. SAAS had to implement a "no-send" policy for some due to a lack of available ambulance resources, with crews stuck on ramps.

Ramping this winter remains among the worst on record. We are significantly concerned that this August will prove to be the worst on record due to insufficient hospital capacity, insufficient available crews and no clear policy to end ramping.

Despite additional capacity in the system, it is clearly not enough. Patients in the community are beginning to be left without an available ambulance when they call triple zero due to the continued practice of ramping.

Ramping is a policy choice. It is the consequence of insufficient investment in hospital capacity, patient flow, workforce growth and ambulance crews.

The time for band-aid measures is over. South Australia needs immediate and sustained investment in both hospitals and ongoing ambulance crews to meet the ever growing demand and ensure they are available for our community when they need them most.

Our frontline workers deserve better. Most importantly, the South Australian community deserves better. Stop Managing the Crisis. Start Investing in the Solution.

Photo: Royal Adelaide Hospital 5pm Wednesday 19 August 2026

16/07/2026

Today our General Secretary spoke with the ABC in response to the Liberal Party’s comments on Priority 3 and 4 response times. The AEA supports raising community awareness on how our health system is performing with all response times across every priority category. This will help the community see where real improvements are happening and where they need to continue happening.
The 2022 election investment was vital, but it only lifted the ambulance service to meet 2022–23 demand. The data is clear: when governments invest, response times improve. When investment stalls, performance stalls too.
South Australians deserve an ambulance service that keeps pace with rising demand, not one that’s constantly catching up. The AEA will keep pushing for the staffing, funding, and system capacity needed to deliver safe, timely care for every patient.

Address

13 Hindmarsh Place
Hindmarsh, SA
5007

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 3pm

Telephone

+61883403511

Website

http://www.aeasa.com.au/

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