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"Ambulance availability"

About: Ambulance Victoria Wonthaggi Hospital

(as a carer),

This matter concerns the failure, in my opinion, of 000 Ambulance to provide an ambulance to take my spouse from our home at Cape Paterson to WCH. This is not about WCH, indeed we have only good service from WCH.

My spouse was highly distressed with nausea, having medications under review as they dealt with high pain and some breakthrough pain. Metastatic cancer. 000 was phoned, (Palliative Care recommended this step on being contacted) the operator quizzed for patient background and finished by saying an ambulance will be provided.

About midnight, the Ambulance despatch rang and spent 11 minutes on my spouse's condition, saying initially the ambulance was coming, then, it seemed they found my spouse was, I believe, not deserving of an ambulance (my logical take) due to the signs of breathing difficulties and distress, it seems not sufficient for an ambulance, for a few minutes later, the staff member about turned, withdrew the ambulance, saying an ambulance was not available.

I believe this staff member's log will bear this out. On arrival at WCH, my spouse's legs had given way, but a very erstwhile COVID door security whipped down with a wheelchair, whilst I held my spouse's dead weight. They did recover but their nausea distress still ongoing, for the WCH Emergency Department to jump in.

My spouse is a very private person who would not want themselves public, but in my opinion, I see this as an item to take upon the oft vexed issue of ambulance services.

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Responses

Response from Jan Child, CEO, Bass Coast Health 3 years ago
Jan Child
CEO,
Bass Coast Health
Submitted on 20/07/2020 at 9:16 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 22/07/2020 at 8:37 AM


picture of Jan Child

Dear talongb83,

I am sorry that it has taken me a while to get back to you. I understand now that WCH stands for Wonthaggi Community Hospital and I also understand that the care at Wonthaggi is not the issue, but that you had a less than satisfactory experience with Ambulance Victoria.

I have taken the liberty to pass this information onto my colleagues at Ambulance Victoria and I know they will be keen to get some more details from you to understand what happened. I would be more than happy for you to contact me directly on 0472846355 and I could privately pass your details onto someone senior at AV?

I want to also say thank you for reaching out and raising these issues. The only way our health system can improve is if we can work together to learn from peoples experience. I hope you are all doing OK during this tricky time. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if we can assist in any way.

Kind Regards,

Jan.

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Response from Jan Child, CEO, Bass Coast Health 3 years ago
Jan Child
CEO,
Bass Coast Health
Submitted on 29/07/2020 at 8:29 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 30/07/2020 at 8:46 AM


picture of Jan Child

Dear talongb83,

I just thought I would follow up to encourage you to call me so that I could connect you with Ambulance Victoria. I have had some liaison with senior staff at AV who reached out to me immediately following your post to see if you had made contact.

They were very saddened to read about your experience and were very keen to connect with you to understand what happened. I would be very happy to be a liaison point so that we could learn from your experience. Don't hesitate to call me on 0472846355.

Kind Regards,

Jan.

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