Family billed by Ambulance Victoria for service that never arrived at their home

An Andrews government minister says she “would imagine” Ambulance Victoria will investigate why a family was sent a $1894 bill for an ambulance that didn’t show up.

Andrews government Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said she “would imagine” Ambulance Victoria is investigating why a young family were slapped with a bill for an ambulance that never arrived in their time of need.

As revealed by the Herald Sun, parents Ashley Walter and Tamika Franklin were slapped with a bill of ­almost $1900 after they had to drive themselves to Kyabram Hospital when their son Lawson, then aged just 15 months, turned grey and was struggling to breathe.

The bill was only overturned late on Tuesday afternoon following calls from the Herald Sun to Ambulance Victoria.

Tamika and Ashley with their son Lawson. Picture: David Caird

Ms D’Ambrosio on Wednesday said she didn’t have available information on the exact circumstances of the incident.

“Certainly, I would imagine that Ambulance Victoria is looking into that matter, (and) is investigating the circumstances around that,” she told reporters.

“But the important thing here is that AV has reached out to that family and reassured them that whatever the circumstances are of what happened, that bill is not required to be paid.”

Asked if it was appropriate for the bill to only be scrapped following calls from the media, Ms D’Ambrosio said: “I’m not sure what the sequence of events were around this.”

“But I’m very confident that Ambulance Victoria does take these matters really seriously and they were very forthcoming in contacting the family,” she added.

‘The only communication we’d received is the bill’

A family who were forced to drive themselves to hospital after their son suffered seizures have been billed by Ambulance Victoria for a service that didn’t make it to their home.

Parents Ashley Walter and Tamika Franklin were slapped with a bill of ­almost $1900 after they had to drive themselves to Kyabram Hospital when their son Lawson, then aged just 15 months, turned grey and was struggling to breathe.

In May, the Herald Sun revealed his distraught parents were still on hold waiting for a paramedic when they arrived at the hospital only to find the urgent care unit was closed.

Staff at the hospital had to call them another ambulance which, after a delay, finally picked them up.

However, a specialist MICA vehicle was not available and could only meet them halfway to Goulburn Valley Hospital in Shepparton.

Ambulance Victoria still billed them $1894 for the entire two-part journey, in a move the family say has added insult to injury.

“Ambulance Victoria (had) never called us to apologise, no one has. The only communication we’d received is the bill,” Mr Walter said.

Ambulance Victoria on Tuesday confirmed it had withdrawn the bill following calls from the Herald Sun.

In the letter sent to their address, Ambulance Victoria mentioned that services provided included triple-0 call centre management, triage and travel to and from the medical incident.

But Mr Walter, who was still on hold waiting for an ambulance dispatcher by the time his car had made it to the first hospital, said they had not received these services and the bill was a slap in the face.

“We were both p----d off immediately, why pay for something you didn’t get?

“We didn’t get through (to a dispatcher) on our way to Kyabram and it was a further 40 minutes before we were on our way to Shepparton.

“We’re still talking about it, we were just trying to get through the pain of the experience and then this bill lobbed in our mail.

“Ambulance Victoria (had) never called us to apologise, no one has. The only communication we’d received is the bill.”

The family were left traumatised after the ordeal, with Lawson turning grey and not breathing as they arrived at the Kyabram Hospital and sought medical help.

Their pain was compounded as they endured a second wait for paramedics to arrive to take them to Shepparton.

Mr Walter said his message for the state government was clear.

“Sort your s--- out,” he said.

“Since our incident happened we’ve noticed other people have said they’ve had similar ­issues. The problem is ramping at hospitals, they’ve got to be able to free ambulances up.

“When we arrived at Shepparton there were 12 ambulances ramped, imagine if they could have been out in the community.”

The family says they are trying to get through the pain of the experience while continuing to care for their son. Picture: David Caird

Ambulance Victoria’s executive director of corporate services, Garry Button said: “Ambulance Victoria has spoken with the family to confirm that there is no fee payment ­required.”

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the government and the Premier should apologise to the family.

“It is astounding that a bill would be sent to a family who were denied an ambulance when they needed one most,” he said. 

“Daniel Andrews must take responsibility for this failing.”

Victoria’s ailing health system has come under fire this year as ambulance wait times have blown out and ramping outside hospitals has becoming increasingly common.

So far in 2022, there have been seven “code red” declarations from Ambulance Victoria, two of them in the past two weeks.

Lawson plays in the paddock with calves after surviving the ordeal. Picture: David Caird

Lawson in the ambulance.

Under the code red crisis protocol, ambulance availability is severely limited and advice is issued for some Victorians to make their own way to hospital.

Staff shortages have also been made worse by workers forced to stay at home with Covid and other infections.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier also attacked Labor over being unable to fix the current health crisis. 

She said: “Lawson’s story thankfully has a happy ending, but there are far too many others that don’t,” she said. 

“Years of mismanagement by the Andrews Labor government has pushed our health system to crisis point.”