AustraliaABC News & HeadlinesMan dies on Tasmania's west coast while waiting for an ambulance, union says
A Tasmanian man in his 60s died after waiting 78 minutes for an ambulance because the local Zeehan station was unstaffed that day.
Tasmania's health union says a man has died while waiting for an ambulance on the state's west coast.
A man on Tasmania's west coast died of suspected heart attack after the nearest ambulance took 78 minutes to arrive from Burnie, 140 kilometres away.
The local Zeehan ambulance was unstaffed due to a roster gap, and nearby crews in Strahan and Queenstown were already on other calls.
The health union is calling on the Tasmanian government to fund more permanent paramedics, saying regional communities are dangerously under-resourced.
The union says an ambulance needs to arrive within 10 minutes for the best survival chance in a suspected heart attack, highlighting the risk in regional areas.
A man on Tasmania's west coast has died while waiting for an ambulance which took nearly 80 minutes to arrive because of staffing issues, according to the state's health union.
The ABC understands the man, aged in his 60s, called Triple Zero (000) from the Zeehan area on Saturday, complaining of chest pains and issues breathing.
Health and Community Services Union state secretary Robbie Moore said this would be a "priority one" case, meaning an ambulance would try to get there "as soon as possible".
However, the ambulance in Zeehan was unstaffed on the day due to an unfilled gap in the roster, and the nearby crews in Strahan and Queenstown were responding to other calls, according to Mr Moore.
An ambulance in Burnie, about 140 kilometres north of Zeehan, was dispatched and arrived about 78 minutes after the Triple Zero call. However the man was dead when it arrived, the ABC understands.
Mr Moore said a crewed ambulance in Zeehan would have been able to arrive at the scene a "fair bit quicker than that".
"This is a very tragic situation that just highlights the need for the government to resource ambulance properly and to put on more permanent paramedics," Mr Moore said.
"Seventy-eight minutes is way too long to wait for somebody with chest pain — that's an emergency situation and it's likely to be a heart attack.
"You need an ambulance within 10 minutes to be able to give the best chance of survival and we weren't able to provide that due to a series of situations."
Mr Moore said he understood there had been a call out for volunteers to staff the Zeehan ambulance, but they "weren't able to get anyone".
The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
Labor MP Ella Haddad said it was "absolutely unthinkable" that another person had died "because of cuts to the health budget".
"This really shines a light on the absolute dire need for investment in regional healthcare in Tasmania," Ms Haddad said.
The incident comes less than two weeks after an investigation was launched into the death of a man in Hobart, whose family had to transport him to hospital due to ambulance delays.
Tasmania's Health Minister, Bridget Archer, said this morning that she was not aware of any similar incidents involving ambulance delays.
"Any death that occurs is a tragedy and our hearts go out to any family and friends that are involved in that situation," Ms Archer said.
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