An elderly South Australian man has died after waiting five hours for an ambulance at his nursing home.
The deaths occurred on July 10, in a month when the number of lost working hours in South Africa rose to a record 5,539, despite the Labor government’s pledge to tackle the worsening problem in the 2022 election.
Ramping is what happens when ambulances line up in a hospital emergency room but can’t unload patients because all the beds are full, leaving fewer vehicles available to care for other patients.
The call to pick up the elderly man was initially a priority 3, meaning an ambulance would arrive within 30 minutes. This was later upgraded to priority 2, meaning an ambulance would arrive within 16 minutes.
His case was then moved to the most urgent priority 1: attendance was expected within eight minutes.
Although the nearest ambulance station was only a kilometre away, after five hours it was too late to save the man’s life.
According to the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA), on the same night the man died, other patients were transferred to the ambulance for 12, 11 and 9.5 hours.
According to AEA Undersecretary Leah Watkins, emergency workers “feel like they are playing Russian roulette” when they are stuck in hospital parking lots treating patients.
An elderly South Australian man has died after waiting five hours for an ambulance at his care home in the Adelaide suburbs.
She said emergency responders also listen to unanswered emergency calls and wonder if the person will be dead by the time they can get to the scene.
“Our members are very concerned that we will once again face similar circumstances to those we saw in early 2022 – delays to emergency care in the community and delays in admitting seriously ill patients to hospital,” she told the Advertiser.
“This is an absolute tragedy. This is exactly why we are fighting so hard to get ambulances out of hospitals quickly.”
Health Minister Chris Picton expressed his “deepest condolences” to the man’s family.
“This has been referred to the coroner and I will ensure that SA Ambulance Service and SA Health fully cooperate with any subsequent coroner’s investigation,” he said in a statement.
Mr Picton added that the government was “focused on improving ambulance response times” and said more people in life-threatening situations were getting an ambulance in time.
But Deputy Opposition Leader John Gardner disagreed, saying: “This is yet another tragic death that will shock many South Australians.
Ambulance Employees Association Secretary Leah Watkins (pictured) said paramedics “feel like they are playing Russian roulette” when stuck in hospital car parks treating patients
Our health care system is in crisis under Labor – a direct reflection of [Premier] Peter Malinauskas’ failed promise to ‘fix’ the ramping problem.
‘Under Labor, 5,539 hours were lost to ramping in July – a grim record figure. Peter Malinauskas must take responsibility and “fix” ramping as Labor promised before the state election before we see more avoidable tragedies.’
The longest time anyone was stuck in July was when an 83-year-old woman was stuck in the car park of the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 12.5 hours.
Mr Picton said the Labor government “recognises that much more investment is needed to further improve response times”.