New data shows people in Western Sydney wait 50 per cent longer for an ambulance than those living in the City and Eastern Suburbs.
According to recent figures published by the Bureau of Health, almost one-third of patients in Western Sydney were waiting half an hour for an ambulance, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report divided ambulance call-outs into three categories: urgent cases (like broken bones), emergency cases (like chest pains), and life-threatening cases (such as car crashes and cardiac arrest.)
The published figures show that the median wait time for urgent cases for residents in Mount Druitt is 40 minutes, 14 minutes slower than the wait time for inner-city residents.
North Sydney and Mosman has the shortest wait time of 25 minutes, whilst Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs’ median wait time was 28 minutes.
“It is simply not good enough that people in the Western suburbs of Sydney can get their Uber Eats quicker than they can get a paramedic at times. That is not a health system that is working,” opposition health spokesman Ryan Park said.
“This is a matter of life and death. When you’re talking about minutes for very, very seriously ill patients, that is the difference here, and it is simply not good enough that we have a tale of two very distinct cities.”
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I broke my shoulder flinging myself off the monkey bars of my Western Sydney school in year six, trying to impress a boy in year 12 (he worked at Glue Store, very coveted.) I was sprawled out on the playground wet pour for forty five minutes, marinating in my own humiliation, degradation and pain before an ambulance arrived. I agree with spokesperson Ryan Park, It’s not good enough.
