By Vanessa Chircop
MAUREEN Turnbull is sick of being made to wait.
The 70-year-old resident who lives in an aged care facility in Altona North said she was being left to wait for several hours by Ambulance Victoria’s understaffed Patient Transport Service.
Maureen has been living at the facility for more than five years since having a stroke at aged 64.
Maureen, who is mostly wheelchair-bound, relies solely on the patient transport service to get her to and from appointments at doctors and chiropractors in surrounding suburbs.
Maureen said once she was dropped off at her appointments she could be kept waiting more than three hours for the driver to return and take her home.
“My appointments may take only 10-15 minutes,” she said.
On one occasion Maureen had a 9.30am appointment at her chiropractors – on this day the chiropractor needed to be out of the office by 10.30am and warned the driver to make sure he arrives back in time.
“I was left sitting there until 12.30 until Dr Natalie couldn’t wait anymore – she moved me to the optometrist and I was wasn’t picked up until after 1pm,” she said.
“This has happened before and Natalie wasn’t very pleased and neither was I.
“When I asked what had taken so long, I was told the driver had to pick up a radio for his van and drop off another patient.
“I was really frustrated and annoyed.”
Ambulance Victoria’s manager of Specialist Services Mark Rogers said they responded to more than 286,000 non-emergency patient transport cases each year.
“To provide this level of service means that we need to have a structured approach that can provide the service to as many people as possible,” he said.
“This does mean that we go and transport other patients while people attend appointments or receive treatments, and then we endeavour to return to those patients as soon as possible.”
Mr Rogers said this might be an inconvenience to some patients kept waiting in a medical facility. However, he would not say if Ambulance Victoria had received any complaints about the service’s long wait times.
Maureen said the service was so understaffed and under funded that they refuse to transport several residents where she lives because they can walk – instead forcing them to take a taxi or public transport.
“They need more staff and more vehicles,” she said.
“The Toyotas they drive don’t fit enough people, they need vans.
“Three hours is too long to have to wait – it’s not really fair is it really?”
