A SINGLETON GP has slammed the NSW Ambulance service, saying her critically ill 81-year-old patient almost died waiting for more than three hours to be rushed to John Hunter Hospital for life-saving surgery.
But the ambulance service said they had an emergency call to an elderly stroke patient in the area at the time which was prioritised, and they were kept up to date about the woman's condition.
Dr Pauline Vizzard said she was called to Singleton Hospital as a visiting medical officer last Monday morning to attend to the elderly woman who had a gastro-intestinal hemorrhage and lost massive amounts of blood.
Dr Vizzard rang the John Hunter emergency department shortly after 10am and was told to urgently get the patient to Newcastle for surgery.
Dr Vizzard said she decided to ring for an urgent road ambulance rather than use the Westpac Rescue helicopter because they were usually quicker.
Dr Vizzard returned to her GP practice thinking an ambulance was on its way but when she rang Singleton Hospital about midday it still had not arrived.
She said she rang the ambulance service again and was put through to a revenue officer. Singleton Hospital staff also called the ambulance service numerous times.
"The ambulance service didn't seem to know what was going on," she said.
Dr Vizzard said she then rang John Hunter again and arranged for the helicopter to transport the patient. It arrived about 1.30pm by which time Singleton hospital had run out of blood to give the patient.
"She was just dying in front of me," she said. "There was not one thing we could do."
Dr Vizzard said she would never again ring the ambulance for an urgent case after the woman almost died.
"I will never accept anything less than a helicopter again," she said.
"You just cannot trust the ambulance service."
An ambulance service spokesman said the Singleton ambulance was called to an 84-year-old stroke patient in a serious condition at the time of the initial call.
"The ambulance service always attends emergencies in the order of priority as we did on this occasion," he said.
He said Dr Vizzard initially declined the offer of the Westpac helicopter and there was constant contact between the ambulance service and John Hunter and Singleton hospitals that morning.
The spokesman said an initial search of records and voice log showed no direct contact with Dr Vizzard but the service was reviewing the case.
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