Family found out man died waiting for ambulance via media reports

The family of a Brisbane man who died while waiting more than two hours for an ambulance despite living just blocks from a hospital found out about his death through the media.

The 53-year-old man called for an ambulance after suffering chest pains on Saturday night from his home in Annerley, a short distance from the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Operators called him back at some point and asked if he could make his own way to the hospital, but he told them it would be unsafe to drive in his condition, Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said.

They asked him to sit tight and call if the pains got worse, but about two hours after he called, the man was found dead by paramedics.

His call had been categorised as a code 1C, which are reached within half an hour 90 per cent of the time, according to Queensland Ambulance Service data.

Nicholls told reporters on the Gold Coast on Friday the man’s family had only found out about the death via media reports on Thursday night.

“The family have reached out overnight, and have seen the story in the media and I think were understandably distressed about that,” he said.

“I apologise to them, that has caused them distress and I understand totally if it has.”

Nicholls said authorities had trouble reaching the man’s family because he was not previously known to Queensland Health, and said the family was meeting with Queensland Ambulance Service personnel on Friday afternoon.

Nicholls said he found out about the man’s death on Monday, and was briefed more thoroughly on Tuesday.

This incident and another where an 80-year-old man died while waiting for a bed at the Mater Hospital in South Brisbane on Tuesday will both be investigated through a process known as a critical incident review, which Nicholls said would be “rapid”.

“It is unacceptable, and I hope the critical incident review will provide us with answers as to how these circumstances occurred, why they occurred and of course, recommendations to improve the services and address any issues that may be revealed as a result of that,” he said.

Nicholls said he was not making excuses for the deaths.

“There is no doubt that there is improvement in the system needing to be made,” he said.

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