Elderly woman's long wait for ambulance after fall

Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell raised the incident and sounded the alarm on the state of the health system.

"Even in Warrnambool we've got ramping. I too am getting inundated with stories," she said.

"A lady in Warrnambool had a fall late last week. She was on the floor...for an hour and a half."

The delay came despite the woman living less than a kilometre from the ambulance station in central Warrnambool.

"She waited in accident and emergency on a trolley, at 83, for about 20 hours before she was able to get a bed," she said.

Ms Britnell said the woman had pneumonia and another infection and was sent home within a couple of days.

"That is not staff wanting to send someone home or leave someone on a trolley. That is resources. They don't have what they need to deliver the health care that I once knew and was very proud of," she said.

"I know those staff are getting worried. They're concerned. They're feeling like they're not giving the care they want to give.

"And I've seen that lead to people leaving because it's too stressful. And that is not something I want to see in Warrnambool and Portland."

Ms Britnell said health professionals were "desperately" asking the government to put the resources in place to make sure our health system gets back to where it should be.

"The government isn't listening," she said.

Ms Britnell said the problems at Portland hospital was also impacting Warrnambool and putting extra pressure on resources.

"It's just not good enough," she said.

Mr Britnell signalled that she would have more to say on the crisis in Parliament during coming weeks.

A former nurse, she said she had a deep knowledge of the health system and how it worked. "They can try and fool me, but I'm going to call them out," Ms Britnell said.

State opposition leader Matthew Guy, who was visiting Warrnambool on Tuesday, said ambulance ramping was happening across the state.

"The priority should be to fix our health service, particularly during COVID," Mr Guy said.

"We were told that we had to be locked down in order to prepare our health service for what comes next.

"The government has had two-and-a-half years to prepare the health service. There's no more excuses. You've had time to prepare our health services. You've had time to get us over issues like ambulance ramping - now we find they're worse than before."

With Warrnambool's hospital in line for a major upgrade, Ms Britnell said she would keep an eye on its progress to make sure it was delivered on time.

"It is so needed and we know that because they're overflowing and treating people in the corridors of accident and emergency and those staff are doing an extraordinary job," she said.

South West Healthcare and Ambulance Victoria were contacted for comment.

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