Ambulance ramping at South Australia’s public hospitals reached near-record levels last month, with the state government citing “extreme” pressure on the health system.

Patients spent 4,095 hours on the ramp in March, according to figures provided by the South Australian government. 

Ramping reached record levels in November last year with 4,285 hours lost. 

SA Health defines ramping as a patient waiting in an ambulance outside a metropolitan emergency department for more than 30 minutes.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital had its worst month of ramping on record in March, while the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre, Modbury Hospital and Noarlunga Hospital also recorded a jump.

The state government said the health system experienced a 17 per cent increase in Category 1 patients compared to the previous month. 

Health Minister Chris Picton said delays in discharging people with dementia out of hospital and into aged care had been “difficult”.

“We were very clear that this would take time that there’s not one single thing that you can do which can flick the switch that can address this issue, you have to do 100 different things all at the same time,” Mr Picton said.

“If you look at the stats that we have right now compared to the same time last year, we’ve got about 100 extra long-stay patients in our hospitals compared to the same time last year.”

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