Queensland Ambulance Service review exposes fatal delays, bungled triple-0 calls

A Queensland ambulance review has exposed confronting incidents including a heart attack victim who waited 51-minutes for paramedics and died before they arrived and a bungled triple-0 call during a suicide attempt.

A lack of resources hampered Queensland paramedics reaching a tourist suffering a fatal medical episode by nearly an hour while a bungled triple-0 call delayed a woman getting help amid a suicide attempt.

The confronting deaths and the emergency responses were detailed in Queensland Ambulance review of “significant incidents” across the state between September 2022 and January 2023.

But the five months’ worth of internal documents has detailed far fewer incidents of paramedics under “extreme pressure” as compared to a previous dossier which outlined explosive cases of hospital ramping and a stretched service.

It’s understood Queensland Ambulance had lowered the bar of what constituted a “significant incident” at the height of Covid-19, but had since rejigged its policy to only capture specific jobs.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said the organisation “reviewed relevant significant responses to incidents to assure that appropriate processes have been followed” and responses appropriate.

Between September 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023 Queensland Ambulance responded to 475,610 code 1 and 2 jobs.

About five significant incidents were logged in that time, according to documents obtained by the Opposition through Right to Information, including the catastrophic SeaWorld helicopter crash.

Ambulance ramping at PA Hospital in Woolloongabba, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Among them was a case on September 3, 2022, in Port Douglas where a tourist in her 50s collapsed, unconscious and not breathing in a hotel, triggering the most urgent response.

But paramedics would not get to her until 51 minutes later, with the delay due to QAS having “nil resources in the area”, with one staff member calling in sick and two others missing the phone call to come in early.

The woman was given CPR by members of the public, and by the time paramedics arrived she had received 14 shocks from a defibrillator to no avail. She was declared deceased.

Another incident involved three “non-compliant” triple-0 calls of a woman threatening self-harm in Hervey Bay, with the blood loss reported not properly taken into account by dispatch.

Paramedics were called to Urraween where a woman had threatened suicide, with call logs indicating a nurse and members of the public were around when the self-harm occurred.

The call came in at 7.21pm, with the job upgraded eight minutes later to a higher priority and the first unit assigned at 7.24pm.

The decision was made to also call Queensland Police to ensure the scene was safe to enter, despite the caller reporting the woman was not violent and did not have a weapon.

But the report also noted the “amount of blood on the scene” would indicate significant loss before QAS were alerted.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the documents revealed the “confronting reality” of a “crumbling health system”.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath’s office defended the state’s ambulance service, saying it had better response time than NSW and Victoria.

The spokesman said Mr Crisafulli could “waste his time making up slogans” but the government would “never stop working to improve” services.