An 18-minute wait for an ambulance to travel just 200 metres, or two blocks, from the Maryborough Ambulance Station to the local football oval after the collapse and subsequent death of a young footballer earlier this month is another tragic reminder of the Brumby Government’s failure to adequately staff country ambulance stations.

Shadow Health Minister Helen Shardey said the admission by Ambulance Victoria that the appalling ambulance delay was caused by a systems breakdown would add to the grief of the family of 24-year-old Carl Lawrence, who died in Maryborough on 4 April.

While John Brumby and Daniel Andrews boast about Labor’s health record, Maryborough residents and country Victorians who don’t have access to appropriate levels of care in an emergency are left to suffer, Mrs Shardey said.

It is a disgrace that the Maryborough ambulance service was unmanned because paramedics were on a fatigue break without being replaced and the Health Minister Daniel Andrews should explain why country Victorians are being denied adequate ambulance services.

Ambulance Victoria also said it was disappointed its response time was longer than what it would have been had Maryborough had coverage, and Carl’s family will never know whether a faster response time would have saved their son’s life.

A quicker response would have afforded Carl Lawrence the best possible care available, care that was denied to him because of the Brumby Government’s failure to adequately staff country ambulance stations.

Concerns have been raised for a number of years about the shortage of paramedics in Maryborough and the consequent risk to lives.

Carl Lawrence’s family is not the only Victorian family to have suffered because of a lack of adequate country ambulance services.

In January a 38-year-old Barooga woman died from complications following an ectopic pregnancy after waiting two hours for an ambulance to transfer her from Cobram District Hospital to Shepparton for emergency surgery.

John Brumby and his incompetent Minister for Health should take responsibility for the failures in Victoria’s health system which put lives at risk, Mrs Shardey said.