The opposition,which has made public more than 500 pages of Queensland Ambulance Service Significant Incident Reviews through right-to-information laws,says the trove shows people died because of an overwhelmed health system.
“Every single one of these Queenslanders and their families are owed answers by the state government,” said opposition leader David Crisafulli,whose party held the latest of its statewide town hall health meetings in Brisbane on Sunday.
“It’s hard to fathom how this is happening in Queensland today.”
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said there was no denying the state’s health system — and those of other jurisdictions around the country — was under pressure even before the pandemic,which had exacerbated issues around demand and resource levels.
But she refuted the opposition’s suggestions that the standard reviews were secretive,or made any findings about the cause of the deaths,among more than 1.8 million ambulance responses across the almost 16-month period.
“This is the normal process that QAS go through,but it is very unfair to the health workers to report that these delays led to these people’s deaths,” she said. “But of course,every death is sad and tragic.”