An Australian man died while waiting for an ambulance, causing public uproar. Neighbors heard the 69-year-old resident of Surrey Hills, Melbourne, crying out for help after suffering a fall inside his home. The neighbors called for an ambulance, but when it finally arrived more than four hours later, the unnamed man was dead.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said resources are “so stretched” and that 50 ambulance crews were not on duty that evening because paramedics were on sick leave. Therefore, Mr. Hill explained, just 90 ambulance crews were covering the entire state of Victoria. Ambulance officials said high levels of seasonal illness worsened the situation.
A statement from Ambulance Victoria insisted that workers were doing their best under challenging circumstances. “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,” the statement read.
Nevertheless, problems with Victoria’s medical staffing go back some years, and in 2022, a similar incident occurred. On that occasion, a 70-year-old man from Paynesville near Melbourne died while waiting for medical treatment after arriving by ambulance at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service. Due to a lack of beds, the unnamed man waited for hours on a gurney, where he died.
Bairnsdale Regional Health Service and Ambulance Victoria launched a joint investigation, but a lack of resources was immediately blamed.
Earlier this year, whistleblowers in Victoria’s state government covertly told journalists that even more savage cuts to the state’s medical budget are on their way, leading to job losses and service closures. Danny Hill of the Victorian Ambulance Union said the service is already under “enormous pressure” and cannot afford the additional cuts demanded by the state government.
Ambulance Victoria’s chief executive, Jane Miller, recently emailed staff to say government funding is struggling to keep up with “increasing demand and the growing cost of healthcare delivery.” Miller insisted, however, that the government had not cut funding, but operational costs had risen. Others disagreed with Miller’s assessment, saying the state had slashed funding by returning to pre-COVID budgets, which were no longer sufficient to cover rising costs, and therefore ultimately amounted to a significant budget cut.
