Why Are Ambulance Ramping?

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) explains ramping as when "[…] ambulance officers and/or paramedics are unable to complete transfer of clinical care of their patient to the hospital ED within a clinically appropriate timeframe, specifically due to lack of an appropriate clinical space in the ED."

What is an ambulance ramping?

Ambulance union secretary Danny Hill linked the incident to a “busy night” and ambulance ramping, which leaves paramedic crews unable to respond to other issues because they're waiting at hospital emergency departments for their current patient to be allocated a bed.

What does ramped mean?

Ramping refers to when patients are left in the backs of ambulances or in a corridor because the emergency department is full. The number of mental health patients presenting at emergency departments has soared by about 70 per cent in the last 15 years.