MURRAY Legro is uncomfortable about calling for an ambulance when his wife Sheryl has a fall but paramedics are the only ones equipped to safely get her back on her feet.
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Mr Legro, aged 72, said he struggled with the awkwardness and his own emerging health complexities in trying to pick Sheryl up. Sometimes he could call on a neighbour to help, if they were home.
Mr Legro has called for an alternative in a time when emergency services, including paramedics, are stretched.
His plea comes in the wake of Grampians Health calling a code yellow on Ballarat Base Hospital's emergency department in Victoria's Central Highlands last weekend, in a bid to meet rising presentations and people with respiratory illness.
But, the Ambulance employees union claimed people like Mr Legro should not have to worry about a call.
"The ambos say they don't mind, but I'd sooner wait for someone who might be in a life-saving emergency," Mr Legro said.
"Everyone's saying ambos are stretched to the limit...We often just need something to lift her up and do basic checks. A couple of times I've called for help from the neighbour.
"While I can provide her basic care, picking Sheryl up off the floor can be hard and I'm not getting any stronger."
Sheryl, who turns 70 later this month, has developed an ulcerated heel that can make her a little unsteady on her feet due to the pain. She also lives with chronic health conditions such as kidney disease, diabetes, nerve weakness and a slow and irregular heart rate.
While the couple has secured a home care package, Mr Legro said there was no real way to help with falls except calling emergency services - even when his wife was otherwise unhurt.
One call-out needed an extra ambulance and two fire fighters when the battery for the lift equipment was flat in the first ambulance to respond.
Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria secretary Brett Adie said paramedics wanted to provide this service to the community but were concerned long-standing issues with resourcing, hospital flows and a lack of alternative healthcare pathways prevented them from doing this job.
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Mr Adie said there was a lot of strong messaging about only calling for an ambulance for the most urgent, critical care - and lifting a person safely after a fall was part of this.
"This is an issue that crops up and that our members have raised with us. Many paramedics are worried that people who need an ambulance are delaying calling an ambulance or not calling at all," Mr Adie said. "It is disappointing that it has got to this. Government needs to understand that allowing public health services to run for long periods beyond capacity is not sustainable.
"When this happens, the system fails and it is the public at their time of greatest need and it is the frontline health workers who suffer."
Mr Adie said this was a resourcing issue that stemmed from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This has been reiterated in a joint study from Ambulance Victoria, Monash University, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Alfred Health and the Baker Heart Research Institute released late this week showing patient offload times were on the rise before the pandemic.
"By putting the responsibility on the public to somehow moderate their use of emergency services," Mr Adie said.
"It has shifted the blame from those who had an opportunity to fix the system before it became a crisis to those who are making life-and-death decisions during their own health crisis."