16 March 2022
Three people, including a 20-year-old, have died in the past two days while waiting for an ambulance.
A man aged in his 50s died last night while waiting two hours for an ambulance to arrive.
His death comes just a day after a 94-year-old patient died waiting 56 minutes for an ambulance and a 20-year-old died after waiting for 45 minutes. The callouts were within 5km and, had ambulances been available, should have been attended to within 16 minutes.
The tragic news follows the deaths of two people last week, who the ambulance union said waited too long for a response.
There were 19 emergency cases with no ambulance to send at about 7.30pm Tuesday in what the ambulance union described as an “unmitigated disaster”. One patient waited 11 hours.
The Ambulance Employees Association says ramping data from last week shows a 50% increase compared to two weeks prior, which coincided with elective surgery restrictions being lifted.
“Ambulance ramping and long wait times are symptomatic of a sick health system, one that is running well over-capacity across the board,’’ ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM said.
“Shortages of beds, shortages of staff, shortages of capacity and resources is taking an enormous toll.
“We have long warned of the potential for deaths if more action isn’t taken to address the crisis within the health care sector and tragically this has come to pass. The system simply cannot cope with demand.
“While we don’t know if a delayed response was the actual cause of the deaths, certainly the longer it takes for an ambulance to attend an emergency callout increases the chances of a tragic outcome,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“Funding and fixing health must be a priority of whichever party is elected in South Australia this weekend.
“We at the ANMF extend our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased.’’