An elderly woman has died after the ambulance she was in had to wait for more than an hour in a queue outside the Flinders Medical Centre.
Health Minister Stephen Wade has told FIVEAA the woman was taken into the hospital’s ED when her condition deteriorated. The ambulance union earlier claimed she had “never made it inside”.
According to the union’s Phil Palmer:
“It’s a very sad day when the overcrowded hospital crisis results in a patient passing away while waiting the queue of ambulances ramped at the FMC,” he said.
“Old folk are the biggest single cohort of patients left waiting for an ambulance and left waiting on the ramp…
“Her and her family should not have had to go through this, it is a denial of basic human rights.
“Make no mistake, ramping is at an all-time high, this is from data supplied to the union by SA Ambulance. Data is one thing, human suffering is another.”
Health Minster Stephen Wade joined FIVEAA’s Leon Byner on Friday.
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