Paramedics at Wollongong Hospital were forced to line up down the street, with some resorting to finding a park in the neighbouring 711 service station, due to long delays and an influx of patients at the emergency department.
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Paramedic and Health Services Union delegate Tess Oxley said delays had become a part of daily life for ambulance workers, but that Monday afternoon had been worse than usual.
"We had 13 ambulances delayed at Wollongong Hospital, eight of which were delayed between one and three hours, and there were so many cars that they weren't actually parking for slurpees, that's the only place they could park the ambulances because the whole driveway was full," she said.
"They are parking where they can find somewhere to pull a car up safely."
"Today there seems to be a lot more [ambulances] delayed, and they are being delayed across the whole Illawarra."
She said Shellharbour hospital was also busy, and that paramedics had been called in from other regions to help the Illawarra health system cope.
"The fact that there's been lengthy delays unfortunately isn't new in the Illawarra, it's just how it is now," she said.
"But today, there have been cars coming down from South West Sydney, the Southern Highlands and eastern Sydney to cover the job loads because of the number of cars that are delayed at the hospital today - and we haven't had to do that in quite some time."
Ms Oxley said the region was experiencing a perfect storm of conditions, which was causing the delays.
"It's just the hospital's inability to cope, and then we've got the warm summer weather which means there are increased jobs," she said.
"It might be elderly with heat stroke, there's still a tourist lag from the Christmas holidays.
"Being a Monday always contributes, because you've had GP services that have not been available to go out to nursing homes and those types of places over the weekends.
"There's also been patients who haven't been discharged from hospitals over the weekend, because there's not as many doctors on as well."
She said paramedics were expecting a busy night, as afternoon delays usually bled into the evening/
A Wollongong Hospital spokeswoman said it had been "a busy day".
"The ED also saw a number of ambulances present within a very short space of time this afternoon, which has contributed to the congestion," she said.
Ms Oxley said any hospital visitors would notice that most ambulances were covering in chalk slogans, taking aim at the Perrottet government over the hospital delays and their pay.
"The fact is, we are still the lowest paid in the country, and when there are these hospital delays we are being asked to step up," she said.
"We have specialist paramedics coming to use their specialist skills to try and keep people out of hospitals, and we are playing out part in the health system to try and fix this, and it's not being acknowledged."
The latest NSW health data shows that delays inside the Wollongong ED have been spilling over into long waits for ambulances arriving in Wollongong for months.
In NSW, 74.8 per cent of people who arrived at emergency by ambulance had their care transferred from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes, figures from the Bureau of Health Information showed.
However, in Wollongong, less than half the patients were transferred within the 30 minute benchmark.
And the first time in the June to September quarter, the average wait in an ambulance outside Wollongong ED was longer than the benchmark, at 31 minutes.
This was up seven minutes from Wollongong's result in the previous quarter and more than double the median wait time for ambulances outside emergency departments across NSW.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
