Sick grandfather’s horror five-hour wait for Frankston Hospital admission
The wife of a grandfather who was ramped outside Frankston Hospital while having a suspected heart attack says the ordeal proves our health system is “broken”.
Victoria
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A grandfather who was believed to be suffering a heart attack spent more than five hours waiting to get into Frankston Hospital as his ambulance sat ramped outside.
It came as the Andrews government announced new details of its $162m cash injection to bolster the health system, including expanding a successful virtual emergency department program.
Russell Chambers, 71, began struggling to breath about 4am Monday when his wife, Glenys rang for help.
“He couldn’t breathe properly so I rang the nurse on call, as they say you should do, and she said she would call the ambulance” Ms Chambers said.
“The paramedics came and ran tests on him and indicated it was a heart attack.
“When we get there he was the ninth ambulance in line and stayed there for hours, he was admitted by about 11am.”
Ms Chambers said she believed her husband would make a full recovery but had gone public with her story so the government would acknowledge frontline workers were being run off their feet.
“I’ve seen it,” she said.
“The system is broken … If someone doesn't speak up it’s just going to continue
“Its going to take a long time to fix, somethings gotta be done.
“We can’t keep spending money on stuff that's not needed, we need hospitals and ambulances.”
A Victorian government spokesman offered their apologies for the stress the family had experienced.
“Every health system around the country has been under unprecedented pressure and we’re investing billions to get it back on track as quickly as possible, manage the ongoing impacts of the global pandemic, staff furloughs and the flu while also supporting our healthcare workers,” he said.
“While every effort is made to prioritise those patients with the most critical need, we know it can be challenging when there are delays to treatment or longer than expected wait times – and we apologise to Glenys and her husband for any distress during this difficult time.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier attacked the government over Victoria’s ongoing health crisis.
“Daniel Andrews has been in charge of Victoria’s health system as minister or premier for 11 of the past 15 years – he cannot escape responsibility for this crisis,” she said.
“Before Covid, Victoria had the lowest government funding for hospitals in the nation.”
“Instead of preparing the health system, Daniel Andrews failed to deliver the promised ICU beds, staff and capacity.”
Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday revealed Victoria’s virtual emergency department program, which connects people suffering non-urgent conditions with medical professionals inside their own home, would be expanded.
The scheme has already helped 35,000 people and will now be broadened to take at least 500 consultations a day.
Eligibility will be widened to allow access for people from residential aged care and undergoing assistance with Covid.
Mr Andrews said the program could now scale up to as many as 700 people per day and would continue to grow.
Advanced life support paramedics will also trial a new rostering system in four Melbourne areas to provide more flexibility.
The government will also expand Ambulance Victoria offload teams at 14 public hospitals to tackle ramping issues.
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