Call for review into regional ambo response times after ‘preventable’ death
Seymour man Tony Hubbard is heartbroken and angry after his wife of 52 years died while waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance. Mr Hubbard explains why he believes regional lives are being lost.
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The death of a woman who was left waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance has raised questions about response times in rural Victoria.
Gayl Hubbard, 68, died in her home in Seymour, in the Goulburn Valley, after suffering severe breathing difficulties.
Her husband Tony Hubbard said she woke short of breath and quickly became unresponsive and had no pulse about 2am on October 7.
He performed CPR, which helped her regain consciousness temporarily before she stopped breathing again.
By the time paramedics arrived, she was unable to be saved.
“I believe if they had got there within 20 to 25 minutes she would still be here today,” Mr Hubbard said.
Adding to his heartache was that the Seymour ambulance station – and the hospital he had been considering taking his wife to – were both visible from his back window, roughly 550m away.
“If I knew it was going to be any more than 10 or 15 minutes wait I would have bundled her into the car straight away and taken her straight to the hospital. The operator on the phone was saying they’re on their way, they’re going to be there in a minute. But it didn’t happen.”
Mr Hubbard said the two ambulances that arrived were from Yea and Nagambie. Paramedics told him there were no staff on duty in Seymour at the time.
“The local ambulance was in Melbourne delivering a patient. That’s fair enough they’ve got to do that, but for God’s sake get someone on standby that can come into the station and take the call. But there’s none of that, this is why we’re losing lives, and one of them happened to be my beautiful wife of 52 years.”
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Mr Hubbard described Gayl as a loving mother and grandmother. He said she had battled throat cancer for 20 years but most recently had been in good health and her death was “entirely unexpected”.
He said his wife’s death highlighted the dangers when there were not enough on-duty paramedics and entire regional towns were left unattended.
He was now pushing for a review into the resourcing of regional ambulance stations.
Ambulance Victoria’s executive director of operational communications Anthony Carlyon met with Mr Hubbard this week and apologised.
“We appreciate the enormous grief of Mr Hubbard at this time,” he said.
“It matters deeply to us when we fail to meet community expectations and we accept that the wait for paramedics to arrive was significantly longer than we would like.”
The death was being investigated by Ambulance Victoria and the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority.
It is the latest case to highlight stark differences in ambulance waiting times in regional areas, compared to Melbourne.
Ambulance Services Jenny Mikakos said the government was awaiting the review into Mrs Hubbard’s death “and stand ready to ensure that any lessons that can be learned are acted on”.