Ambulance ramping occurring at Melbourne hospitals

A devastated family member has slammed the “broken” health system after a 94 year-old woman was forced to wait hours in the back of an ambulance.

Severe staff shortages have been blamed for creating a “bottleneck” of ambulances at three of Melbourne’s busiest emergency departments.

At least 14 ambulances were ramped outside Maroondah hospital on Wednesday, while the nearby Angliss and Box Hill hospitals were also hit with huge demand.

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the ramping led to delays of up to two hours.

“This means that for two hours those ambulance crews were unable to respond to cases in the community,” he said.

“Unfortunately it is not uncommon at any major metropolitan hospital to have twelve crews ramped.”

Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker said the ramping was a clear example that the system was “still under pressure”.

Ambulance Victoria recently experienced its busiest quarter on record, attending 91,397 Code 1 cases - a 16.2 per cent increase compared to the same time the previous year.

“The reality is, we’re still dealing with the issues of the pandemic. Our lives are returning to normal but the reality is the health system is still under pressure,” he said.

At least twelve ambulances were ramped outside Maroondah Hospital on Wednesday.

A 94 year old woman was among those caught up in the chaos on Tuesday night, forced to wait hours in the back of an ambulance.

The woman, who had suffered a fall and needed urgent medical attention, arrived at Box Hill hospital at 9pm but wasn’t taken into the emergency department until midnight.

Even then, she was still not able to secure a bed inside the hospital.

She was transported to the Angliss Hospital at 10am on Wednesday morning after spending the night in the ED.

“She was extremely ill and needed a doctor,” a family member said.

The devastated family member, who wished to remain anonymous, said more needed to be done to ensure Victorians could be seen within reasonable times.

“The health system is clearly broken and cannot keep up with the demand,” they said.

“The state government need to urgently invest money into hiring more healthcare workers and fix this crisis.”

Health Minister Martin Foley used Question Time in parliament on Wednesday to also blame Covid for causing the increased demand.

“Ambulance services are under pressure like they have never been before,” he said.

“And the interface between those two does result in - in the context of patient flow throughs - bottlenecks in the system, (which are) commonly referred to as ramping.”

An Eastern Health spokesman confirmed a number of their emergency departments had been impacted on Wednesday.

“The impact of this high demand is further compounded by the number of staff currently furloughed due to Covid-19,” he said.

“We encourage our community to keep emergency departments for emergencies only.”

The Herald Sun has sought information as to how many staff members across the three hospitals are currently off work.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier slammed the government for creating a health crisis due to “years of mismanagement”.

“After two years of the pandemic, our health system still remains in crisis because of the Andrews Labor government’s lack of planning and preparation which means Victorians can’t access the services or get the care they require,” she said.

“Instead, they are waiting in ambulances for hours on end.”

Ms Crozier said solutions needed to be implemented to “immediately address the crisis”.

“Fix the system now so Victorians can access the care they need when they need it because more excuses and more spin is not fixing the crisis,” she said.

“This government has had plenty of time to act but it is their years of mismanagement that has led to this happening across the state.

“Whether it’s elective surgery wait lists, triple zero or ambulance ramping, it’s not good enough and Victorians deserve better.”

A government spokesman said the pandemic, including new variants, continued to put pressure on hospitals and ambulance services.

“We know there is more to do - it’s why in February we announced a $1.4 billion package with measures to reduce pressures on our paramedics and EDs,” he said.