SA woman Betty Dobson left waiting in pain for ambulance hours before death

As SA’s ramping crisis continues, the family of a cancer sufferer has spoken out after she “waited and waited” in agony for an ambulance that didn’t arrive.

Betty Dobson who passed away the day after her family were told there was no ambulance. Picture: Supplied by family

The family of a woman who suffered through excruciating pain while waiting for an ambulance that didn’t arrive is calling for greater transparency in the dispatching system.

Betty Dobson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 20222 and underwent an aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatment plan.

She lost more than 30kg in four months and, in February 2023 was at home with her husband Steve Dobson when she developed what he said was “excruciating pain”.

“She wasn’t the sort of person who would call an ambulance (for non-serious issues),” Mr Dobson, who shared 50 years with his wife, said.

Mr Dobson called an ambulance and a neighbour arrived to help him at home, and “we waited and waited”.

“I re-called them and they said … not only was there not (an ambulance) on the way, but she couldn’t tell me when there would be one available,” he said.

“It was pretty hard to take in that we were in a capital city, 2km from an ambulance station.”

After two hours, Mr Dobson and a friend drove Mrs Dobson to Noarlunga Hospital where she was diagnosed with a perforated bowel associated with her pancreatic cancer.

She was then taken to Flinders Medical Centre and, on advice from a surgeon who said she was unlikely to survive an operation, was placed into palliative care.

She died the next day.

Betty Dobson (left) who passed away the day after her family were told there was no ambulance. Picture: Supplied by family

“It took my neighbour and I a lot of trouble, lot of pain, to get her into a small car,” Mr Dobson said.

“When we arrived at the hospital there were people there waiting and they were brilliant.

“They put her straight in, put her on immediate pain relief and scans which they then forwarded to Flinders.

“She was in extreme pain and we were under the impression there was an ambulance on the way.

“The only reason I called an ambulance and didn’t take her down there myself was because first of all, I couldn’t get her in the car by myself and secondly, I wanted the ambulance because I know they’ve got immediate pain relief.”

Mr Dobson and his daughter Julie Dobson on Sunday went public with their experience and have called for a change to the system to inform people who call an ambulance about possible wait times.

Ms Dobson said she held “great respect” for ambulance officers, doctors and medical staffers, and hit out at the number of people going to hospital who “can’t access doctors easily”.

Betty Dobson (right) who passed away the day after they were told there was no Ambulance. Picture: Supplied by family

“She still would have died but the night before, she wouldn’t have been in pain as much had there been a different outcome,” she said of her mum.

South Australia Ambulance Service CEO Rob Elliott said the organisation had improved its response times in the past two years.

“We’re very happy to look into the case that has been raised today and work with the family and have a discussion with them,” he said.

He said the SAAS response times had continually improved over the past two years, including priority one and two cases.

“We’ve added four additional 24/7 crews into our metropolitan areas which is a significant increase in our capacity and we’ve seen an excellent turnaround in our response times,” he said.

“We continue to exceed our property one response times considerably.

“We also have seen that very significant increase in priority two case times.”

Opposition Leader David Speirs said the Dobson family’s experience was “incredibly concerning and sad”, and questioned if the incident sparked a review.

“Peter Malinauskas promised South Australians he would fix ramping and fix our health system – but on his watch, things have never been worse,” he said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said it was “utterly heartbreaking” Mrs Dobson was left to wait for an ambulance “when she needed one the most”.

Health Minister Chris Picton called on the Opposition to release its health policies.

“Since we’ve come to government we have been absolutely determined to invest more resources into our health care system to ensure outcomes for patients,” he said.

That included an extra 550 clinicians across the health system, and 170 extra paramedics and ambulance officers across the state.