The state government commissioned the independent report in December after Dr David Pope, an emergency specialist doctor and president of the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association, alleged health bureaucrats were intimidating hospital staff to inappropriately prioritise ambulance patients to reduce ramping statistics.
The ambulance union then made a counter-claim in January that waiting room patients were being prioritised over ambulances after a 54-year-old man known as Eddie died after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance.
But the report’s authors, Dr Bill Griggs and Professor Keith McNeil, on Thursday said they could find no evidence to support either claim after an “exhaustive” examination.
Dr David Pope criticised the review’s scope for being too narrow, but applauded its recommendations. (Jacob Shteyman/AAP PHOTOS)
Emergency room data did show a trend for non-ambulance arrivals to be seen quicker than those conveyed by ambulance, but there was no evidence this was a result of inappropriate staff directions.
“We found absolutely no evidence that practices had been enacted, or that data was being manipulated, to present a more palatable view of the ambulance ramping situation,” the report said.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the government would implement all five of the review’s recommendations, including strengthening the words of relevant policies and conducting a review into organisational safety culture.
Dr Griggs said communicating across departments was holding the system back.
He suggested using artificial intelligence to better allocate resources across information “silos”.
“There is a potential here to use machine learning, there’s potential here to use people who have a very good understanding of flow and logistics,” Dr Griggs said.
He pointed to the airline industry as a model for how data could be used to more effectively manage staff and resources.
While Dr Pope criticised the review’s scope for being too narrow, he applauded its recommendations.
“It’s pleasing that the reviewers have come up with these and hopefully this allows us to go forward and fix a lot of the issues that are arising,” Dr Pope told reporters.
The Ambulance Employees Association also welcomed the review’s findings and vowed to work collaboratively to implement its recommendations.
But opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said it was an “absolute joke” that Dr Griggs and Prof McNeil only spoke to about 15 clinicians face-to-face as part of their consultation.
“The doctor’s union had a survey which came out on Monday that interviewed 50 people,” she said.
“What we know is that 90 per cent of doctors who responded to that survey indicated that they had witnessed this pressure.
“I don’t think this gives the average person listening at home any confidence there’s no pressure within our health system.”
