Parents of sick child forced to drive to hospital after workforce shortages in Victoria
Workforce shortages among Victoria's paramedics have been highlighted after the parents of a four-year-old child who had difficulties breathing were forced to drive to hospital.
The parents said they were told the nearest ambulance was 50km away when they called for assistance in the early hours of Monday in Melbourne.
Victorian Ambulance Union boss Danny Hill said the incident was not isolated, with ambulance availability dropping below five per cent every day for the past three weeks.
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Victorian Ambulance Union boss Danny Hill. Today
"Every paramedic's heart goes out to the family and what they have went through," Hill said.
"Paramedics turn up to work wanting to go out to those cases.
"Clearly, they have tried everything they could to get to this family but they were too far away and there was a big black spot in ambulance resourcing."
Hill said resourcing has been so much in demand, it dropped to one per cent availability on Sunday night.
"That's a terrifying number but this case shows the real-life consequences of what that reduction of resourcing means," Hill said.
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Ambulance availability has dropped below five per cent every day for the past three weeks. Nine
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said it was "concerning" to learn how families were being impacted by the shortages.
"Unfortunately, we don't have any further information in relation to that young girl as her parents opted to drive her to hospital," she said.
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