SA Health has launched a review after it was revealed a man died while waiting ten hours for an ambulance. The paramedic's union says it's one of the worst cases they've seen with the ambulance service saying high volumes of ramping contributed to the slow response.
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00:00 It's incredibly distressing to know that you've been responding to a case that's waited 10
00:05 hours and to get there and to find a patient deceased when if you had got there sooner
00:10 you might have been able to do something to save that patient.
00:12 The union says the man called triple zero with abdominal pain and vomiting and was labelled
00:17 priority five, meaning an ambulance should have arrived within an hour.
00:21 The SA Ambulance Service concedes ramping was a factor in the delay.
00:25 The operational pressures that we were experiencing on the night, which was a combination of very
00:30 very high triple zero demand and some significant ramping meant that we had to prioritise the
00:34 higher acuity calls that we were receiving.
00:37 The ambulance service says when the man's condition deteriorated his case was upgraded
00:42 and paramedics were there in four minutes, but it was too late and the case is now being
00:46 reviewed.
00:47 This is an absolutely tragic outcome.
00:50 Our hearts go out to them and this is not the standard of service that we want to provide
00:55 people.
00:56 Ambulance ramping times hit a record in November with patients spending 4,285 hours waiting
01:03 outside public hospitals.
01:05 But the government has released its December figures that show it's dropped by 16 per cent.
01:10 [End of Audio] Duration: 2 minutes and 30 seconds
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