NSW Ambulance has publicly apologised after an elderly Tocumwal man waited 40 minutes for care.
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Peter Enever, 81, was looking for garden fittings in his neighbour’s shed when he collapsed and smacked his head on the concrete floor.
It was Wednesday, February 12.
Mr Enever was knocked unconscious. Around 10.40am, a neighbour called 000 for ambulance assistance.
Meanwhile, his neighbours hauled him to a sitting position. Mr Enever’s breathing came ragged and slow. His skin was grey, and blood ran down the back of his head.
According to Mr Enever and his wife, Robyn, it wasn’t until about 40 minutes after the call, around 11.20am, that an ambulance arrived from Berrigan.
By then, Mr Enever had come to. But the Enevers were both left rattled by the experience.
“When I woke up, I couldn’t believe what had happened to me,” Mr Enever said.
“A day later, I was thinking to myself, ‘If I hadn’t woken up, that was my life over’.”
Mr Enever lives with heart problems and wears an artificial cardiac pacemaker.
Mrs Enever said long wait times for ambulances were something the Tocumwal community — including herself — had faced for years.
She joined a growing chorus of voices calling for Tocumwal to get its own ambulance station.
“We’ve got to do something,” she said, adding that the paramedics weren’t the ones to blame.
“The government just keeps saying, ‘no, you don’t need it’. And yet, we’re a holiday town.
“If [Peter] had been having a heart attack, he wouldn’t have been too lucky.
“Something’s got to come to a head. Is somebody going to die?”
After a trip to the Tocumwal Hospital, then later to GV Health in Shepparton, Mr Enever returned home the next day.
Medical scans diagnosed the cause of Mr Enever’s fall as dehydration.
Currently, Tocumwal is serviced by a volunteer-based Community First Responder unit under NSW Ambulance.
In a statement, a spokesperson for NSW Ambulance said the unit received regular training from NSW Ambulance to help patients with immediately life-threatening conditions while paramedics were on their way.
“As a Category 3 response, this incident did not require CFR assistance,” the spokesperson said.
“Requests for ambulances are triaged according to urgency and clinical need to ensure the most seriously unwell patients are treated first.
“An audit of the 000 call has confirmed that the incident was correctly triaged as a non-emergency Category 3 response, which does not require the ambulance to drive with lights and sirens.”
NSW Ambulance uses the Medical Prioritisation Dispatch System to assist in triaging 000 calls.
ProQA is the software used by NSW Ambulance emergency medical call takers to complete the primary triage process. The quality standards for the use of the system are set out by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
“A NSW Ambulance safety audit has confirmed that the closest available crew was immediately dispatched to the patient, who was appropriately assessed and treated by paramedics before being transported to Tocumwal Health Service,” the spokesperson said.
“NSW Ambulance sincerely apologises to the patient for the wait they experienced.”
But advocates say the case is one in a long list of incidents whose potentially fatal consequences would be avoided if the tourist town had its own ambulance station.
Tocumwal Ambulance Steering Committee chair Marie Farrell said an ambulance station should become part of Tocumwal’s infrastructure as the town further grows.
“We have an ageing and growing population. The median age for Australia is about 39 years, while the median age for Tocumwal is 59,” Mrs Farrell said.
Over recent months, the steering committee has been working with NSW Ambulance to establish a Community Emergency Response Team in Tocumwal.
Mrs Farrell said the CERT volunteers would be a great addition to the town to complement the services provided by a permanent ambulance station.
“This would be a back-up in an emergency situation for when the ambulance is away from town,” Mrs Farrell said.
While still in the early stages of recruiting for the CERT, Mrs Farrell is optimistic the program will go ahead.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for NSW Ambulance said the Tocumwal community could be assured there was adequate ambulance coverage to service the region 24/7.
“NSW Ambulance operates a highly mobile workforce, with vehicles and crews moving throughout their shifts to provide geographical coverage of ambulance resources across NSW,” the spokesperson said.
The latest data from the NSW Government’s Bureau of Health Information shows that the number of ambulance responses within their allocated response times in the region has steadily declined since records began in 2010.
“NSW Ambulance uses a well-established service planning process to identify where to locate stations and paramedics, a process which a 2024 NSW Auditor General’s report found to be comprehensive and effective,” the spokesperson said.
“Tocumwal meets the criteria and is a suitable location for a Community Emergency Response Team, which is comprised of NSW Ambulance clinical volunteers who are trained and equipped to a high standard to support paramedics.
“We will continue to consult with the Berrigan Shire Council and the Tocumwal community about this and other volunteer opportunities to enhance NSW Ambulance clinical services in the community.”
Cadet journalist