Hospital ramping and non-emergency calls are being partly blamed for a chronic shortage of ambulances across Melbourne and Geelong.
The ambulance union says 14 MICAS could not be staffed at various times in areas including Geelong and Tarneit on Saturday night.
In one case, a patient was in cardiac arrest in Wyndham Vale over the weekend, but the closest MICA responders were in Geelong or Windsor.
The Melbourne parents of a dying child were also forced to drive themselves to hospital after being told there was not an ambulance available within 50km.
It comes after up to 11 ambulances were ramped outside University Hospital Geelong on Thursday night.
Danny Hill from the Ambulance Union said hospital ramping remained a big issue.
“Our paramedics keep telling their employer, Ambulance Victoria, they’re being sent to low acuity cases that don’t require an ambulance,” he said.
“But the system often draws out cases like a toothache or hiccups, or someone who has picked a scab off their foot, as being a life threatening emergency and it ties up our resources.”
Ambulance Victoria says the sickest patients are always a priority.
