‘Broken system’: Tragic deaths spark Qld ambo ramping probe

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman will meet with emergency department heads on Friday to work on a solution to ambulance ramping following a spate of tragic deaths.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman is set to convene a meeting of emergency department heads on Friday in a bid to hash out more potential solutions to ambulance ramping after a spate of tragic deaths.

It comes as the daughter of Wayne Irving — who died while being transferred from a stretcher to Ipswich Hospital after being ramped in an ambulance for three hours — said her confidence in the health system had been shattered.

Lauren Hansford, standing alongside Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in Ipswich, called for the government to make real change or make way for someone who will.

“We have a system that is broken. And it needs to get fixed,” she said.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman.

“Don’t just say you’re going to make a change, do it. Actions speak way, way louder than words.”

Mr Irving, 67, was picked up within 30 minutes from his Coulson home on November 16 after his wife Barbara called an ambulance at 7.30pm. But he was stuck with his paramedics on the hospital ramp for three hours before ultimately suffering a suspected fatal heart attack.

Ms Hansford said she had decided that evening her dad wouldn’t get the proper care he needed if she picked him up and drove him to the hospital herself. It’s a decision she regrets.

Forest Lake single mother Cath Groom, 51, died on November 18 after an ambulance failed to reach her.

Ms Fentiman said the government was “doing everything we can to tackle ambulance ramping”.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Wayne Irving.

“We’ve seen a 4 per cent improvement in patient off stretcher time in the last few months (but) there’s so much more to do,” she said.

“But I’m also pleased to say our average patient off stretcher time is now 34 minutes, so some of (the measures) are working.

“There’s no silver bullet to fix it and if there was we would do it.”

Ms Fentiman confirmed she was bringing together all the heads of emergency departments on Friday to look at what more could be done.

Cath Groom died after calling an ambulance for chest pains.

She said it was “appropriate” to do so after a “really tough couple of weeks” brought on by a heatwave and increased cases of Covid-19.

Mr Crisafulli said the state government needed to be “honest about where they are at”.

“II always use ambulance ramping as the barometer for how sick the system is. Ambulance ramping was 15 per cent, eight years ago, and it has deteriorated every single year and now it’s at 43 per cent,” he said.

“What that means is you’re nearly a one in two chance of waiting longer than clinically recommended.”

New ambulance ramping data, released to the Opposition through a question notice, revealed the longest periods paramedics waited to offload patients between May and September were between 8 hours and 16 minutes and 9 hours and 54 minutes.

Public hospitals at Redlands, Ipswich, and Logan were among the facilities which logged the worse ambulance ramping.

At Ipswich Hospital in June one ambulance waited 9 hours and 54 minutes to offload a patient.

Queensland Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli.