Arabic version: قاضية الوفيات في الإقليم الشمالي تربط تأخر سيارات الإسعاف بوفاتين
According to ABC News, Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage found delays caused by soaring demand for ambulance services contributed to the deaths of two Darwin patients in January and February. Her findings examined three patients aged between 75 and 89 who died after no clinically appropriate ambulance resources were available.
An 80-year-old man collapsed at home on February 7 and waited six hours after his family called emergency services at 8:12am. He was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital and died later that afternoon. Judge Armitage found St John NT was down a crew and all available emergency units were committed to higher-priority cases. A forensic pathologist considered the more than six-hour “long lie” caused by the ambulance delay contributed to his death.
An 89-year-old woman fell at a nursing home the following day. Staff called an ambulance at 2:06pm, and she remained on the floor until 6:45pm before being transferred to a wheelchair. Paramedics arrived at about 7:08pm and she later died at Royal Darwin Hospital, 11 days after a CT scan showed five broken ribs and a collapsed lung. The forensic pathologist found the five-hour “long lie” contributed to her death.
A third patient, a 75-year-old woman who collapsed at an aged care home in January, waited an hour-and-a-half for an ambulance and later died in hospital. The pathologist found that delay did not contribute to her death. St John NT said demand rose 37.7 per cent between 2020 and 2025, and 61.1 per cent since 2015. It said the Northern Territory government provided an additional $10 million for ambulance services, but further capacity remained subject to government agreement and funding.
