South Australian Labor Party Promises to Focus on Mental Health and Fix Ramping Crisis

General view of the Modbury Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia on July 21, 2021. (Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)

South Australian Labor Party Leader Peter Malinauskas has vowed to upgrade the South Australian health system through the addition of 300 hospital beds and 100 more doctors to prioritise mental health and reduce ramping if he is elected Premier in March.

The announcement came at Labor’s campaign launch on Sunday, where Malinauskas noted that included in the 300 new beds would be 98 allocated to mental health, an area which is suffering from a lack of resources according to Former Director of Mental Health at Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Professor John Mendoza.

“Excellent to see that Peter Malinauskas has made mental health the key plank in the Labor election launch. Fundamental to the wellbeing of SA to have a functional care system,” Mendoza said in a tweet.

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) also welcomed the announcement, saying this investment would help relieve the pressure on emergency departments (ED) and healthcare workers.

 “SA’s mental health crisis is directly linked to blown out ED wait times and ambulance ramping. Many ED beds are consistently occupied by patients experiencing mental health issues,” they said.

Ramping refers to when paramedics are required to continue to care for patients instead of handing over clinical responsibility to the ED.

In November 2021, the ABC reported that the SA health system had been dealing with an ongoing ramping crisis which saw some patients spending up to five hours in the back of an ambulance.

Malinauskas said that Labor is the only party with a plan to fix the ramping crisis.

“Today I will continue to outline Labor’s plan to fix the ramping crisis and deliver an historic investment in our health system,” he said.

In order to achieve this, in addition to the extra beds, Labor has promised to recruit 100 more doctors within four years, aiming to improve waiting times and reduce pressure on hospital staff.

Malinauskas said that these investments will be made possible by scrapping  Steven Marshall’s $662 million inner-city basketball stadium, and directing that money into health.

Meanwhile, Premier Steven Marshall said at a press conference on Monday that Labor likes to use slogans but doesn’t have a comprehensive plan for health in South Australia.

“We have shown over our first four years in government that we’ve been able to flex up the capacity in terms of beds, in terms of doctors, nurses, paramedics,” he said.

“We’ve been able to make sure we can work in partnership with the private sector to deliver those quality healthcare facilities closer to where people live right across the entire state.”

He added that Labor saying they'll put on 100 doctors by 2026 is missing the point, and that his government has been putting on more than 100 doctors each year they’ve been in office.

“Our responsibility is to set the budget in response to what’s needed in South Australia, and we’ve proven that over the last four years,” he said.

“I think with this election, the people of South Australia know exactly what they’re going to get. He (Peter Malinauskas) was the Health Minister. He was the guy that closed the Repat (Repatriation General Hospital),” he said.

Marshall continued that they were the Labor Government that said they would transform health, but slashed 500 to 1,000 beds out of the system, whereas the Liberal Party, by contrast, has added hundreds of additional beds to the system, thousands of additional workers, and is upgrading all the state’s health facilities.

“And we’re currently in the midst of an upgrade to eight emergency departments in South Australia,” he said.

“We’ve put a major focus on older person’s mental health and mental health right across the system.”