Specialist paramedics were called to treat a cardiac patient inside a hospital corridor because the emergency department was full, prompting an investigation by the Victorian government.
The incident took place at Maroondah hospital, in Melbourne’s east, on Tuesday when ramped paramedics were forced to call another ambulance themselves after attempts to admit their patient failed.
Victoria’s health minster, Mary-Anne Thomas, said she has asked for a full investigation into “exactly what happened”.
“I’ve never heard anything like this before and it was very concerning to me,” she told reporters at parliament on Wednesday.
“I have made it very clear to both Eastern Health and Ambulance Victoria that I want to know exactly what has gone on here so we can do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The patient involved was “doing well” and ultimately did not require admission to the hospital, Thomas said.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, echoed Thomas’s stance, saying “protocol was not followed in this instance”.
“We do need to ensure that patient care is managed in accordance with the established protocols,” she told reporters.
Ambulance Victoria’s chief executive, Andrew Crisp, said an intensive care ambulance had to respond under lights and sirens to treat the patient in the hospital corridor.
“A crew needing to call intensive care back-up to … treat a patient in a hospital corridor in a major hospital … I don’t think we’ve heard that before,” Crisp told ABC radio.
It comes as Crisp said he was taking more than seven weeks leave for an overseas holiday, just days after his appointment to the top job.
The Victorian Ambulance Union’s general secretary, Danny Hill, said the incident at Maroondah was an insight into the conditions faced by workers in the service.
The patient had been waiting for 40 minutes with an irregular heartbeat, chest pain and palpitations, he said.
“We’ve seen more and more paramedics’ role not being respected,” he said.
“Their role is that they’re an emergency service. They should be working as an emergency service responding to medical emergencies.”
Hospitals should be required to prioritise ambulance offload, so paramedics can get back on to the road to respond to emergency cases.
The opposition’s health spokesperson Georgie Crozier said the incident demonstrated the “extreme crisis” unfolding within the Victorian health system.
“This is an extremely serious situation,” she said.
“It’s a cardiac patient, it’s category two. They need to be assessed and treated within 10 minutes, and that did not happen.”
An Eastern Health spokesperson said its staff were working within a system “under a great deal of pressure” and encouraged those with non-urgent conditions to seek alternative health care options.