A critical shortage of paramedics has left South Australian patients in limbo, including a Mount Gambier woman who was reportedly left waiting overnight in a hangar after having a heart attack.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) flew Glenda Kaczmarek, 70, to Adelaide from the Mount Gambier Hospital for urgent heart treatment on Friday night.
But according to her friend Tracy Rebonds, Ms Kaczmarek was left all night on a stretcher at the RFDS hangar in Adelaide waiting for an ambulance.
"There were no ambulances available so she sat in the hangar at RFDS at the airport, she actually laid on a stretcher for 11 hours waiting for an ambulance to pick her up," Ms Rebonds said.
Ms Kaczmarek was transferred to the Flinders Medical Centre after being picked up by an ambulance around 9am on Saturday.
Ms Rebonds said her friend has since been told she needs a triple bypass, because some of the blood vessels "were beyond repair".
The South Australian Ambulance Employees Association said there have been seven consecutive days of a so-called Code White declaration.
"That puts the patients at significant risk," the union's Josh Karpowicz said.
"As soon as the ambulance service is unable to meet life-threatening cases, all other cases are delayed and deferred, and this is when patients are ramped."
The union said 18 ambulances were unstaffed on Saturday night and 85 paramedics were currently furloughed due to COVID.
"There just simply isn't enough staff and the staff that are there are being furloughed by being off sick," he said.
Health Minister Chris Picton said hundreds of workers across the health system were furloughed with COVID.
But he said an extra 350 paramedics were being recruited, with 32 due to hit the road this week.
Mr Picton said the RFDS had an "exceptional" service in Adelaide which was akin to a "mini hospital".
He agreed Ms Kaczmarek's situation was "clearly not acceptable" and said it was a sign of the pressure the system was under.
Ms Rebonds said the situation was worrying.
"It's concerning that loss of life may happen at some stage because of incidents like this," she said.
"Everyone does everything right and gets you to the city to get that emergency treatment that can't be given in a country hospital, and then to wait 11 hours can actually make the condition much, much worse.
"By sitting in the airport for 11 hours it certainly delayed that treatment and it could've caused even more damage to the heart."
In a statement, the South Australian Ambulance Service said it worked collaboratively with the RFDS to provide "safe and quality patient care".
"Inevitably in this complex space, lining up aircraft and ambulance service capacity can be challenging, with SAAS prioritising life-threatening emergencies at all times," the statement said.
"All patients continue to receive appropriate monitoring and treatment whilst waiting for ambulance transport at the world-class RFDS base in Adelaide with the ability to escalate cases to SAAS and MedSTAR."
The doctors' union said ramping continued to be a major issue across the hospital system.
Bernadette Mulholland from the Salaried Medical Officers Association told the ABC the health system was in "complete crisis" and the lack of resources was creating "horrendous" situations.
"I can't articulate the stress of these staff, at not being able to give the patients the care that they should be giving them not only in a timely manner but in appropriate areas," she said.
