Union claims Adelaide man died while waiting more than 10 hours for ambulance
A South Australian man died after allegedly waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance last week, it’s been revealed.
The Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) has claimed there was significant ramping across all metropolitan Adelaide hospitals on December 27 and delays were a factor in the 54-year-old’s death.
“The AEA understands that the 000 call was for abdominal pain and vomiting and the case was initially triaged as an urgent Priority 5, requiring an ambulance to attend within 60 minutes,” the union said.
“Due to significant ramping, ambulances were stuck at hospitals instead of being available for the community.
“This led to long delays in ambulance responses, and by the time an ambulance arrived for this patient, he had passed away.”
The AEA has also claimed waiting room patients were prioritised into the emergency department over patients in ramped ambulances.
A video uploaded to social media has shown ambulances ramped at one hospital at 10pm on December 27, which the union said demonstrated “the extent of ramping that night”.
“This tragic death is a stark reminder that when ambulances are ramped at hospitals, patients waiting for help in the community are left without care for unacceptably and dangerously long periods of time,” AEA industrial officer Josh Karpowicz said.
“Ramping takes ambulances off-road and puts patients at risk of deterioration in an environment where there is no one available to help them.”
The union has provided details of the incident to health authorities, who are undertaking a clinical review into claims that ramped ambulances are being prioritised into hospital EDs over waiting room patients.
South Australia Health has been contacted for comment.
