A woman who died while waiting for care at a Western Australian regional hospital had suffered a rare aneurysm, according to a review.
The 70-year-old woman died in the emergency department of Busselton Health Campus in April.
She had arrived by ambulance after suffering from back pain, but was forced to wait several hours to be seen and was not handed over to hospital staff, but remained under the supervision of non-transport agents. paramedics.
An independent investigation has found that the cause of death was rupture of a dissected thoracic aortic aneurysm, an extremely rare heart disease.
The review found that death was unlikely to have been avoided if it had been seen immediately.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, who presented a summary of the review on Tuesday, said the hospital had faced significant demand overnight with 16 ambulances at any given time.
He said the emergency department had been well equipped, but it was still insufficient to cope with the unusually high activity.
“This was unprecedented and could not have been foreseen,” he told reporters.
“And it’s also important to note that … even if they had been seen more quickly, it’s unlikely that the outcome would have been different for that particular patient.”
The government has accepted recommendations to install a dedicated emergency department coordinator to manage the flow of patients on the Busselton Health Campus, as well as a nurse responsible for monitoring waiting patients.
In the meantime, the St. John’s ambulance will need to notify the WA Country Health Service when a ramp occurs to ensure that hospital staff have support.
In recent months, WA has experienced high levels of ambulance ramps, where patients face long waits to be delivered to emergency departments.
The government, which is in talks with St John over his contract, has questioned why the ambulance provider did not immediately activate contingencies to deal with coronavirus-related casualties.
The state opposition has blamed the government for not investing enough in the capacity of the health care system.