Five-hour ambulance delays outside hospitals a âpublic health disasterâ
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Patients with heart attack symptoms and spinal injuries are being forced to wait in ambulances outside hospitals for as long as five hours in what paramedics and the Australian Medical Association have described as a deadly public health emergency.
A letter from a senior Ambulance Victoria executive, obtained by
The Age, and new figures reveal a health system under duress.
Ambulances have had to wait for hours outside Victorian hospitals.
Ambulance response times are at their worst since 2016-17 and Ambulance Victoria has instigated emergency protocols â where patients can be instructed to take taxis to hospital instead of waiting for ambulances â three times more this year than in the previous two years combined.
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