An elderly man has died after he was forced to wait four hours for an ambulance in Melbourne’s west, during what the paramedics’ union has described as a critical shortage.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the 69-year-old Surrey Hills man could be heard yelling for help inside his home about 2am Saturday after a fall. The union boss told the media the man’s neighbors called for an ambulance, but due to stretched resources no crews arrived at the home until about 6am.
Mr Hill said the death was “incredibly sad” and devastating for the man’s family, as well as the call and paramedics who want to be able to help patients.
“But with resources so stretched, the workload being what it is, it’s just become impossible,” he told the Herald Sun.
“You can never predict what would have happened had paramedics gotten there sooner.
“But, by all accounts he was calling out, so you expect that the situation may have been much different had we got to the gentleman on time.”
Mr Hill said 50 ambulance crews were offline, or “dropped”, on Saturday night due to a high number of paramedics being on sick leave.
Paramedic Shortage and Overworked Crews
The Victorian Ambulance Union secretary, Danny Hill, said he’d been told a 69-year-old Melbourne man died after waiting hours for an ambulance during the shortage on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
He said paramedics had to drive “massive distances” to reach sick patients and just 1% of the state’s ambulance fleet was available at a certain point.
“It’s been several years since we’ve seen this amount of resources dropped, perhaps only during Covid,” he said on Sunday.
Hill said a “sad and tragic” incident at Surrey Hills in Melbourne’s east resulted in a man dying after waiting four hours for assistance.
“They called triple zero but, because there were no resources available, he waited four hours,” Hill said.
“When resources finally did become available and they did send an ambulance to the patient, they found the gentleman to be deceased.”
Hill said he was told the man had been calling out “for some time”.
“Even if he got a delayed response, a response within one or two hours, even though that’s way too long, the situation could have been vastly different,” he said.
“They’ve eventually turned up and found him to be deceased, which is just so incredibly sad because it is a life that, absolutely, it’s a life that probably could have been saved.”
The situation overnight may have been made worse if not for several dozen off-duty paramedics who took on extra shifts, the union leader said.
Impact on Response Times and Patient Care
The union says that Victoria was 50 paramedic crews short, as the state government grapples with a crisis more than a decade in the making. High levels of sick-leave left Victoria down 50 ambulances overnight and in a dangerous position, the boss of the state’s paramedics union says.
The shortfall was felt particularly in Melbourne, where 30 crews were lost due to sickness. The union said the metropolitan region reportedly dropped to 1 per cent fleet availability at times.
In one instance, Hill said, an ambulance in Cranbourne was the nearest crew available to respond to a triple zero call in Melbourne’s CBD. In another, the union said a crew in Mornington had to respond to a case in Dandenong. Multiple crews calling for intensive care back-up for critically unwell patients were told none were available, the union said.
The union also reported ambulance ramping at the Ballarat Base Hospital on the weekend. A video shared to their Facebook page showed a number of ambulances parked at the hospital on Saturday afternoon, with their lights flashing. This means they were ramped for more than 40 minutes. The union says ramping means crews can’t respond to patients in the community and will probably be working hours of overtime.
Ambulance Victoria’s Response and Government Actions
In a statement, Ambulance Victoria told Nine papers that case was being reviewed and that the man’s death would be referred to the coroner.
“Our deepest sympathies are with the patient’s family members at this very sad time,” the agency said.
“We would like to thank the community members who alerted triple-0.”
Ambulance Victoria went on to state that the health system was extremely busy due to seasonal illness.
“We have as many crews on the road as possible and our priority will always be responding to the sickest and most time-critical patients,” it said.
“We use a dynamic operating model that relocates resources as necessary to minimise rostering impacts.”
Victorian minister Colin Brooks said the effects of the pandemic continue to flow on to the state’s ambulance service.
“Our ambulance services are sometimes stretched and we can’t determine when people are going to be genuinely sick,” Brooks told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
“But we’re making the investments in our ambulances to make sure they continue to operate even under the stress.”
Ongoing Challenges and Calls for Action
The paramedics’ union has been locked in negotiations over its next enterprise agreement for months, with pay and conditions including unreasonable overtime emerging as major sticking points.
In August, Ambulance Victoria’s chief executive, Jane Miller, resigned after 18 months in the role a few weeks after the paramedic union passed a vote of no confidence in the executive board. Former Emergency Management Victoria commissioner Andrew Crisp is the interim chief executive during the search for a permanent replacement. He is on pre-booked leave.
The state’s opposition health spokesperson, Georgie Crozier, said the situation overnight was “extremely concerning”.
“Victoria is at risk when you don’t have an ambulance system that is meeting the needs of the Victorian community and that is occurring under the watch of the Labor government,” she said.
“We need our paramedics to be supported, we need the Victorian community to be supported when they need emergency care.”
The union says that the crisis is a result of years of neglect and underfunding. The union has been calling for the government to invest in more paramedics and better working conditions for existing staff. They argue that this is the only way to ensure that Victorians can get the emergency care they need.
Beyond Melbourne: A Statewide Crisis
The shortage of paramedics is not just a problem in Melbourne. In regional Victoria, ambulance crews were also stretched thin, with reports of ambulances being “dropped” in Ballarat, Geelong, and Shepparton, among other areas. This means that the crews were unavailable to respond to emergency calls, further exacerbating the situation.
A Sign of Things to Come?
The tragic death of the Surrey Hills man has highlighted the very real consequences of the ongoing shortage of paramedics in Victoria. The situation is dire, with the union calling for immediate action from the government. However, it is important to note that this is just one example of a larger trend across Australia. With increasing demand for ambulance services, coupled with declining staff numbers and worsening working conditions, the challenges facing the ambulance sector are likely to continue.
Seeking Solutions
The question now is: what can be done to address this crisis? The union has put forward a number of solutions, including increased funding for paramedic training, improved working conditions, and more flexible staffing models. However, the government will need to take concrete action to address the root causes of the problem. This will require a commitment to long-term investment in the ambulance sector, as well as a willingness to listen to the concerns of paramedics and other stakeholders. Only then can we hope to prevent more tragic incidents like the death of the Surrey Hills man.
A Wake-Up Call
The death of the Surrey Hills man is a stark reminder of the importance of a functioning ambulance service. In the face of this crisis, it is crucial that all parties involved – the government, the union, and the community – work together to find sustainable solutions. It is time for action, not just words, to ensure that the ambulance sector is able to provide the vital service that Australians rely on.
