Patient care on the ramp: Who is legally responsible?

Michael Eburn; Tina Cockburn; Anne-Maree Kelly

doi:10.1111/1742-6723.14541

Patient care on the ramp: Who is legally responsible?

Emerg Med Australas. 2024 Dec 3. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.14541. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Michael Eburn¹, Tina Cockburn², Anne-Maree Kelly^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Law and Justice, Charles Sturt University, Canberra, New South Wales, Australia.
² Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
³ Joseph Epstein Centre for Emergency Medicine Research at Western Health, Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Critical Care - Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 39627832
DOI: 10.1111/1742-6723.14541

Abstract

Ambulance ramping, the delay to transfer of a patient arriving at an ED by ambulance into an ED treatment space and handover of care to ED clinicians, is a problem in all Australian states and territories and New Zealand. It is a symptom of ED overcrowding and access block and has been associated with adverse health outcomes for some patient groups. The questions arise, who might be legally responsible for the care of patients who are ramped and does their physical location matter? The short answers are 'everyone' and 'no', however, whether there will be a breach of duty depends on the reasonableness of responses and resource allocation considerations.

Keywords: ambulance; emergency department; health law; medical negligence; ramping; resource allocation.