Anger is building across the Victorian community after a 69-year-old man died over the weekend while waiting for an ambulance.
Philip Burne, a regular at the Ringwood RSL, waited nearly four hours on the floor of his home after falling over.
When an ambulance finally arrived, it was too late.
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Members of the much-loved RSL told 9News the 69-year-old’s death was tragic.
“It’s pretty awful that someone lies in a house on the floor and has to wait four hours for an ambulance and have no one to call,” David Jamieson said.
“For the older cohort, they rely on the emergency services to ensure their health needs are met. When it fails it can be catastrophic, as it was in this case. It’s really sad and frankly, we all got to do better.”
Ambulance Victoria is reviewing the death, which happened while at least 50 crews were off the roads thanks to a spike in sick leave, according to the paramedics‘ union.
Ambulance Victoria acting chief executive Danielle North said she could not directly comment on the case due to the coronial investigation.
“The demand is high at the moment but we prioritise our care to the sickest and most vulnerable patients in the community,” she said.
“We certainly experienced an increase in personal leave over the course of the weekend, it was unpredictable, the level we received.”
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Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said there was “chaos and dysfunction” across the health system.
She said the “tragic” death should have never happened.
“This is symptomatic of our health system that is in crisis,” she said.
“Every second counts in an emergency. Waiting four hours is a terrible reflection of how bad the system is.”
The Ambulance Union said the shortage was due to overwork leaving paramedics “burnt out and exhausted”.
The union claimed that 30 ambulances were taken off Melbourne roads, leaving some towns up to 100 kilometres away from their nearest ambulance.
“You’re always going to get higher absenteeism, more people off on sick leave when crews don’t get their meal breaks, they don’t get off shift on time, their workload is out of control,” secretary Danny Hill said.
9News has seen evidence that 2 per cent of the fleet was available in Melbourne, with 50 calls to triple zero in the queue.
Ambulance Victoria however said it wasn’t enough to trigger a Code Orange, which would have activated extra measures to help paramedics.
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