Wynyard woman waits 30 minutes for ambulance at the end of her street

UPDATED: The shocking reason why an 80-year-old woman with a broken hip was forced to wait half an hour for an ambulance.

Tasmania Ambulance Service vehicle

AN elderly woman with a broken hip waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to travel 250 metres to her home – because the crew was due a meal break and her triple-0 call was considered non-urgent.

Kellie Smith said her mother-in-law fell and broke her hip at her Wynyard home on Monday.

Her family called triple-0, expecting that an ambulance they could see sitting outside the nearby ambulance station would be there shortly.

But Ambulance Tasmania said the vehicle wasn’t dispatched because its crew was due for a meal break.

Ms Smith said the family were astonished the ambulance wasn’t sent sooner.

“When we went up we saw the ambulance station, because it’s just down the street, and I said to Stephen ‘it won’t take long to get there’,” she said.

But after a long wait, the family began wondering when help would arrive.

“Stephen was a bit upset because his mum was in a bit of pain,” Ms Smith said.

“We’d been there about half an hour. Stephen walked up to the station and asked why they hadn’t come down and they said they hadn’t received a call.

“It’s not an ideal situation. You want to have faith, because she’s there on her own, that help is there when she needs it.”

Ms Smith said she did not blame paramedic staff for the long delay, saying that they were doing their best under difficult conditions.

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An ambulance spokeswoman said the call was ranked as non-urgent.

“It may take slightly longer to respond to less urgent calls for assistance and this is how Ambulance Tasmania saves lives – by being where we need to be as quickly as possible,” she said.

“Consistent with practice Australia-wide, Tasmanian paramedics are entitled to take routine rest breaks. If a life-threatening emergency is reported, they forgo this break.

“There was not a breakdown in our communication system, this was an example of a system working perfectly that is designed to save lives.”

The injured woman is recovering in the North West Regional Hospital.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney said Ambulance Tasmania dealt with 300 calls a day and she had every confidence they were dealt with appropriately.

“I followed this incident up personally and the matter was dealt with appropriately,” she said.

Labor MLC Josh Willie said the ambulance service was “in meltdown”.

“It’s not acceptable and this is off the back of other related stories where we have relatives driving ambulances to the hospital, we’ve had an ambulance have to come from Launceston to fill a gap here in southern Tasmania.

“And we’ve got the health union saying that the ambulance service isn’t place to deal with a major incident.

“These are deeply concerning stories and symptomatic of a system that is in.”