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Your views: on waiting for an ambulance, and more

Today, readers comment on patient deaths and ambulance response times, planning Adelaide growth and affordable housing.

Mar 16, 2022, updated Mar 16, 2022
Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Commenting on the story: More patient deaths mar final days of Marshall campaign

When ambulance numbers were first increased about 10 years, ago the aim was “to keep people out of hospital”. This seems to have become forgotten 10 years on.

More ambulances needlessly taking unwell people to overpacked hospitals will not reduce ramping. What is needed is better community responses to support people from becoming unwell in the first place.

More ambulances have been funded at the expense of grass roots health promotion. It is hardly surprising that we now have ramping because having taken so many fences away from the top of the cliff, we now need more and more ambulances waiting to transport those who fall over the cliff from manageable ill health and safety, to overcrowded hospitals, largely filled with the people previously transported.

It is a tragically real example of a misdirected system; that is, one where doing more of the wrong thing makes things “wronger” not “righter”. It is like bigger bins to reduce waste (it creates more) and more roads to reduce congestion (it works till more people get more cars and we are back to where we were).

Sadly this misdirected system is putting lives at risk. But more ambulances taking people to hospital is not the long-term answer. We either need ambulance services that support people to stay home, or, maybe we need quite different kinds of services in the community supporting people to be healthy to make a difference to ramping. – Janette Young

I am always suspicious when vested interest groups, whether it be unions or business, start lobbying in the lead up to elections because often reality gets replaced with selective quoting and selective figures.

Could we please see a five, 10, 15 and 20 year average of mortality rates whilst waiting for an ambulance, please. These figures will be readily available in SA Health statistics. Should they show an increase over time, then clearly something is very broken as one would expect that we are getting better given the amount of money thrown at this, not worse.

If the figures/statistics show that the mortality rate has risen, then action must be taken because the community expectation is that that should not happen in 2022 and questions have to be asked of a whole bunch people, not just politicians. – Grant W Petras

Commenting on the opinion piece: If we want to grow Adelaide, we need to plan for it

I note that the proposed underground rail system covers areas already well serviced by bus services. A fast train (proposed by Edwin Michell and Richard Blandy) from Adelaide to Victor Harbour via Mount Barker would truly change our state and help alleviate issues related to unaffordable housing.

It would also immediately free up daily congestion on the south eastern freeway. At an estimated cost of 1.3 billion, it would take advantage of existing tracks with some modifications. Surely for all these reasons, it deserves greater examination. – Geraldine Jones

I totally agree with Guy. Adelaide seems to have a “Sleepy Hollow” attitude where its citizens never want things to grow or change.

The city has been screaming out for years for development and infrastructure to encourage people to return to the city. People need a reason to travel to the city and right now Adelaide has very few reasons to encourage people to go there. The public transport is ordinary, as is the shopping. New life needs to be breathed into the city urgently and attitudes need to change. – David Balchin

Commenting on the story: Major party policies do ‘nowhere near enough’ for struggling renters 

Interesting that in the federal arena last election that Labor looked at reducing some of the the benefits of negative gearing but the proposed policy change was ‘blown up’ by the LNP as part of a scare tactic.

Surely affordable housing for those that need it should be more important than providing tax breaks to those that already own a house(es)? And yes, I’m aware that it’s a complex issue with a number of levers that both state and federal governments should be part of. – Helen Chadwick

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