New data has revealed that 136 people have died in the past five years shortly after being ramped outside Tasmanian hospitals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In a letter sent to the parliamentary committee that is holding inquiry into ambulance ramping, Health Department deputy secretary Dale Webster confirmed the number of deaths, but said no conclusions could be drawn from it.
"As ambulance arrivals usually reflect the most acutely unwell presentations, it is not unexpected that some patients will die while in hospital," the letter read.
"A causal link cannot be drawn between transfer of care delay and cause of death based on these administrative data."
The ambulance ramping inquiry was initiated last year following several high-profile cases where patients had died after their ambulance waited outside the hospital for beds to become available - a process referred to as ramping.
This included 71-year-old Kings Meadows woman Anne Pedler, who died in 2022 after being held in an ambulance at the hospital for eight hours.
Greens Leader Dr Rosalie Woodruff seized on the Mr Webster's letter, saying it was an indication of how the government is mishandling the health system.
"What we are seeing is a direct relationship in the increase in ramping in Tasmania and the length of stay on the ramp, to the increase in the number of people who are dying shortly afterwards," Dr Woodruff said.
She also pointed out that the number of deaths after ramping appeared to be on the increase.
The data shows 16 post-ramping deaths in 2018-2019, increasing to 18 the next year.
There were 30 in 2020-21, 28 the next year, and then 44 in 2022-23.
Government minister Jo Palmer said there was more the government could do in the space to reduce ramping.
But she also said some were misrepresenting the data for political ends.
"You cannot take two separate bits of data, join them together, and then have an unsubstantiated outcome," she said.
"We are talking about families who are still going through a grieving process and we've got, for political purposes, the misrepresentation of data sets.
"This is a new low and I am very uncomfortable with it."
Health Minister Guy Barnett said the federal government must also step in to help aged care and general practice.
About 40 per cent of patients that call an ambulance or show up in the emergency department ought to have gone to a GP, he said.
"We know increased demand on our emergency departments is often due to difficulty in accessing timely and affordable primary health care such as general practitioners," Mr Barnett said.
"We have repeatedly called on the federal government to urgently outline its plan to adequately invest in Medicare to ensure GP clinics remain financially viable, so that Tasmanians can see a doctor when they need to," he said.
