A WARRNAMBOOL family’s trauma in waiting hours for an ambulance for a seriously ill elderly man has triggered changes in Ambulance Victoria’s despatch assessment.
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Senior management of the service met family members this week to apologise for the botch-up in the case of 80-year-old Ron Ziegeler, a cardiac patient who had been receiving palliative care at home.
He died in hospital on November 18, two days after the delayed ambulance trip.
It took three frantic phone calls before an ambulance arrived two hours 23 minutes after the initial alert from his wife.
This week two regional ambulance managers told Ron’s children, Richard Ziegeler and his sister Denise Mugavin, the incident had triggered changes in the despatch system to prevent similar delays and trauma.
“We accepted their apology and are heartened that changes have been made which hopefully will save lives,” Mr Ziegeler told The Standard yesterday.
“They explained the delay was traced back to initial classification of our first distress call as a grade-three case which means a non-urgent simple transfer to hospital.
“The ambulance officers were sent on a meal break and their vehicle restocked.
“Then even after my two subsequent calls to find out when the ambulance would be arriving the problem was compounded because the initial classification wasn’t changed.
“We were assured this week mechanisms have since been built in to make sure this delay doesn’t happen again.
“However, the despatch system still comes down to human interpretation of the call,” he said.
“We are not blaming ambulance officers. It’s not their fault.”
Ambulance Victoria acting south-west group manager Gary Castledine yesterday confirmed senior representatives had met the family, explained what happened and apologised for the delay.
“Following the case we have put in additional steps and checks to prevent this situation arising again,” he said.
