Patients at a major Melbourne hospital have been forced to wait on stretchers in corridors as Victoria’s ramping crisis continues.
The demand for emergency services was so high in Melbourne last night, Ambulance Victoria put out an alert just after 1.30am warning of delays.
“There are delays in ambulances reaching patients in metropolitan Melbourne at present. If it’s not an emergency, please call NURSE-ON-CALL,” it urged patients.
That lasted for about an hour before another alert went out saying they were back to normal operations.
Triple zero call system also crashed, leaving call-takers to revert to pen and paper.
One of Melbourne’s two major emergency hospitals, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, received 250 patients in 24 hours.
This has lead to a bed shortage within the emergency department with bed shortage persisting.
Patients are lying on stretchers in hospital corridors because there are no beds currently available in the emergency department.
Nurses from the Royal Melbourne Hospital also confirmed there were no ED beds available.
The latest delays come days after a grieving widow said more needed to be done to fix Victoria’s plagued health system.
