Arabic version: وفاة رجل بعد تأخر سيارة إسعاف على الساحل الغربي لتاسمانيا

According to ABC News, a man in his 60s died on Tasmania’s west coast after waiting nearly 80 minutes for an ambulance, with the state’s health union linking the delay to staffing issues. The ABC understands the man lived in the Zeehan area and called Triple Zero on Saturday reporting chest pains and breathing problems.

Health and Community Services Union state secretary Robbie Moore said the call would be classified as a “priority one” case, requiring an ambulance to attend as soon as possible. But the Zeehan ambulance was unstaffed because of an unfilled roster gap, while crews in Strahan and Queenstown were responding to other calls, Mr Moore said.

An ambulance was dispatched from Burnie, about 140 kilometres north of Zeehan, and arrived about 78 minutes after the Triple Zero call, ABC News reported. The man was dead when it arrived. Mr Moore said a crewed ambulance based in Zeehan could have reached the scene “a fair bit quicker than that”.

Mr Moore said volunteers had been called to staff the Zeehan ambulance but no one was available. He said the death highlighted the need for the government to properly resource ambulance services and employ more permanent paramedics. The Department of Health had been contacted for comment.

Labor MP Ella Haddad described the death as “absolutely unthinkable” and said it demonstrated the need for investment in regional healthcare. The incident follows an investigation launched less than two weeks earlier into the death of a man in Hobart whose family drove him to hospital because no ambulance was available. Health Minister Bridget Archer said she was not aware of similar ambulance-delay incidents and offered condolences to those affected.