The Nationals Member for Gippsland South, Danny O’Brien says the ongoing ambulance crisis cannot be allowed to continue as critically ill and injured residents are being left in the lurch.
Speaking in Question Time in Parliament recently, Mr O’Brien raised his concerns with the former Minister for Ambulance Services, Martin Foley.
Mr O’Brien said he had been contacted by yet another a constituent who had had an alarming experience with Triple 0.
“My constituent’s wife had a fall while volunteering at the local football and was in extreme pain. As a football trainer with advanced first-aid qualifications, he was concerned she had broken her hip.
“After calling 000 and explaining his wife’s situation, my constituent was told that an ambulance would not be dispatched until she was triaged before being put through to a recorded message which advised him to hang up and that he would be called back.
“With his wife screaming in pain, my constituent and some helpers put her on a stretcher, loaded her into the back of a ute and took her to the nearby hospital.
“Is being taken to hospital in the back of a ute what the government meant by Victorians getting the medical help they need when they need it?”
Mr O’Brien said over the past few months his office had continued to receive calls and emails from residents with similar stories.
“I am hearing of Gippslanders waiting on hold upwards of 20 minutes to be put through to request an ambulance by the 000 operator as well as others who had got through only to be told that there were no ambulances available.
“This is the third time this year that I have raised similar issues in Parliament Question Time as the evidence continues to pile up.
“This simply cannot be allowed to continue.
“Our local paramedics and health care workers are doing their best under enormous pressure, but they continue to be let down by a government that failed to prepare our system.”