Ambulance ramping at South Australia's hospitals has increased, with the state government blaming a rise in people presenting to emergency departments for the jump.
SA government data shows ramping increased 5.8 per cent in May compared to April's figures, with patients left waiting in an ambulance for a combined 2,972 hours before being admitted to hospital.
The Royal Adelaide Hospital saw a 205 hour jump in ramping compared to April, but the Lyell McEwin Hospital saw a 131 hour drop in wait times, according to SA Health data.
The state government said May's jump in ramping coincided with a 5.2 per cent rise in ambulance transports to hospitals, compared with the previous month.
However, the government said ambulance response times improved in May, with 68 per cent of urgent Priority 1 cases seen within the recommended eight minutes — exceeding SA Health's 60 per cent target.
Fixing ramping was a major election commitment of the current government before it came to power in March last year.
Opposition spokesperson Ashton Hurn said the ramping results were "really disappointing".
"Peter Malinauskas went to the election with one key election commitment and that was his promise to fix ramping in South Australia," Ms Hurn said.
"The government shouldn't be popping the champagne corks on this. They've got to roll up their sleeves, knuckle down and deliver on their promise to fix ramping exactly like they said at the election."
Ramping figures were released in the same week Adelaide metropolitan hospital emergency departments were placed under a code white on three separate occasions, meaning all their emergency department beds were in use.
Meanwhile, an email obtained by the ABC revealed the Royal Adelaide Hospital was placed at level three demand escalation on Friday afternoon, with multiple ambulances ramped and no emergency department beds available.
An SA Health spokesperson confirmed to the ABC that the hospital was still at that pressure rating on Saturday afternoon.
Ms Hurn said the government needed to "use every lever possible" to alleviate pressure on the hospital system ahead of the winter surge.
Government 'throwing the kitchen sink' at ramping
Leah Watkins from the Ambulance Employees Association said a volunteer ambulance crew was ramped at the Flinders Medical Centre for seven hours on Friday with a single patient.
"That was a particularly concerning one … and that was the particular reason I had reached out to the health minister to make sure that he was aware of that," Ms Watkins said.
She said while ramping at South Australian hospitals was at "unacceptably high levels", the situation was better compared to last year.
"I feel that we are on the right track and unfortunately the numerous initiatives that the government has focused on … are all going to take some time to implement."
Health Minister Chris Picton said the government increased the use of private hospital beds in recent days to meet heightened demand.
"I've been in pretty regular contact with our health leaders across the network who have been putting in place a number of measures in terms of making sure that we can meet that demand," Mr Picton said.
He said the government was adding more than 150 beds to South Australian hospital emergency departments by the end of next year to ease pressure on the system and improve ramping times.
"We are throwing the kitchen sink at this in terms of a whole lot of investment going into our hospitals to make sure that we've got all the capacity that we need," Mr Picton said.
Flu vaccination campaign unveiled amid rising cases
The state government has unveiled a $150,000 campaign aimed at encouraging parents to vaccinate their children aged under five-years-old.
The government said only 14 per cent of eligible children in that age group have been vaccinated against the flu, despite the cohort most likely to spread the disease and suffer complications from it.
Almost 3,970 cases of the flu have been reported in South Australia this year, with 413 people requiring hospitalisation and one death.
SA Health said 576 children aged between six months and five-years-old have contracted the flu so far this year.
South Australia's Chief Public Health officer, Nicola Spurrier, said the number already accounted for a third of last year's flu cases in children aged under five, and was expected to rise.
Professor Spurrier said the state was experiencing an increase in Influenza B cases — an infection which she said affects children worse than Influenza A.
"Children have much smaller airways, so the trachea going down into the little bronchioles into the lungs are much smaller, so when they have mucous in there it blocks really quickly," she said.
Mother of four children, Hayley Handler, said the flu vaccine has prevented the disease from spreading in her family.
Ms Handler, who is also a childcare centre director, said the flu spreads rapidly through childcare centres once it takes hold.
"My eldest had influenza and was hospitalised," she said.
"Being asthmatic and having a household full of asthmatics we know that it's extremely important to have that immunisation to lessen the effects of the illness."
The advertising campaign will be launched across social media, in medical clinics, pharmacies and shopping centres and will run until the end of June.
