Charge emergency patients a fee to fix ramping, Pederick suggests
State MP Adrian Pederick has sparked a row in parliament by suggesting a solution to the ramping crisis he admits would be highly unpopular.
A new fee for emergency patients, and investment in country hospitals, could help fix South Australia’s ramping crisis, state MP Adrian Pederick has suggested.
The issue of overcrowding in hospital emergency departments – and patients being left in ambulances on the ramps outside – has been the biggest issue in South Australian politics since the 2022 election, when now-Premier Peter Malinauskas made it the central plank of his campaign.
In parliament on Wednesday, Mr Pederick suggested a novel solution: charge a gap fee to discourage people from showing up to emergency departments.
Emergency patients in Murray Bridge and other regional centres already paid a fee if they were able to be treated and sent on their way – why couldn’t city patients do the same?
The idea would be deeply unpopular and impossible to sell politically, he said; and it was not official opposition policy.
But South Australia had spent billions trying to fix the problem over the past few years, and for what?
