Dying left to wait for ambulances

People are dying while waiting for medical assistance in Australia's largest state because of systemic problems within the St John Ambulance Service, it was alleged yesterday.

Paramedics in Western Australia have told ABC Television's Four Corners programme that lives are put at risk every day because of mistakes by the St John emergency call centre. In March, an internal audit shows, 65 top-priority cases were wrongly classified as not urgent, resulting in delays in ambulances being dispatched.

The programme, which was due to air last night, highlights several harrowing stories, including that of a 48-year-old man who bled to death in front of his wife and four children. In another case, an elderly woman, Tina Oddo, suffered a stroke and died while waiting for an ambulance, which took two hours to arrive.

The union representing West Australian ambulance officers claimed yesterday that a lack of accountability meant such deaths were not always investigated properly or made public. Western Australia is the last state with a private ambulance provider; elsewhere, governments have taken over the service.

Paramedics say St John has resisted introducing a computerised system which would eliminate such errors. The whistleblowers claim the system is "fatally flawed".

The chief executive of St John, Tony Ahern, defended the service, calling it "equal to anywhere in the world".

Western Australia's Health Minister, Kim Hames, has ordered his department to investigate the claims before signing a new five-year contract with St John.