By YASEMIN TALAT
AN 85-YEAR-OLD Williamstown woman died after a two-hour wait for an ambulance during Melbourne’s heatwave week.
An emergency call was made for a “collapsed 85-year-old” on the Friday afternoon, but paramedics did not arrive to the woman’s home until two hours and one minute after the call was made.
The woman was found by paramedics unconscious with heatstroke.
She had a body temperature of 40C and an unrecordable blood pressure.
She died in hospital the next day.
Victorian Secretary of Ambulance Employees Australia, Steve McGhie, said Victoria’s ambulance service was in crisis and experienced a ‘meltdown’ during the heatwave.
“Even during relatively quiet times, Victoria’s ambulance service is woefully inadequate,” Mr McGhie said.
“However, last week the system went into meltdown.”
“Paramedics send our condolences to the family of the deceased lady. No patient in her condition should have to wait two hours for an ambulance. It is unacceptable,” he said.
The paramedics union is currently trying to negotiate better pay and conditions with the Napthine Government.
“Victorians deserve a much better health minister and a much better ambulance service,” Mr McGhie said.
“And unfortunately, this government is actually pouring petrol on the fire, trying to cut paramedics’ entitlements and ensure they remain Australia’s lowest paid paramedics.”
Regional services general manager Tony Walker said Ambulance Victoria was currently going over the case of the Williamstown woman.
“We are reviewing this case and will make ourselves available to meet with the patient’s family to discuss our response,” Mr Walker said.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with them at this time.”
Mr Walker said extra paramedics, ambulances and managers were rostered during the busy heatwave days to boost response capability.
“Ambulance Victoria provided an exceptional response to an unprecedented demand for services during last week’s heatwave,” he said.
“We appreciate the efforts of our paramedics who worked in extremely trying conditions to help Victorians during this period.”
A record number of 2553 triple-zero calls for ambulance were made on the Friday 17 January, an increase of 30 per cent to Monday’s call volume.
This followed Thursday’s total of 2506 ambulance triple-zero calls, the second highest number of ambulance calls ever answered by ETSA.
