By Broede Carmody

Copyright smh

Ramping impacts the broader community – not just patients waiting to be admitted to hospital – because it means there are fewer paramedics out in the field available to treat children struggling to breathe or grandmothers who’ve collapsed after chest pains.

“It’s a huge issue,” Gazarek said. “It’s something hospitals have always wanted to improve.”

Late in 2024, Victorian hospitals were told to slash their ambulance patient offload times by 4 per cent. When Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas went public with the plan early this year, she described ramping as one of the biggest issues plaguing the state’s health system.

Peninsula Health – which operates Frankston and Rosebud hospitals – has now achieved something that no other Victorian health service has done.