NSW Ambulance has rejected claims in Parliament that paramedics took 52 minutes to reach a Newcastle mother who went into anaphylactic shock at home and died three days later.
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Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery said on Tuesday that health care under-resourcing had contributed to the death of Maryland mother-of-three Hanna Scigala last month.
Ms Scigala, 31, died on January 7 after a peanut allergy sent her into anaphylactic shock in front of her children.
Ms Hornery said Ms Scigala had called 000 at 10pm but it took paramedics 52 minutes to reach her.
"Due to the large number of ambulances stuck in bed block at Hunter hospitals, a team was unable to be dispatched to Hanna until 10.26pm," she said.
"The ambulance was dispatched from Belmont Hospital and did not arrive in Maryland until 10.52pm.
"Sadly, due to a lack of oxygen to her brain, Hanna suffered a hypoxic brain injury and died a few days later."
NSW Ambulance told the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday evening that an initial review of its records showed an ambulance had arrived on the scene in 18 minutes.
Another four ambulances had arrived later.
"NSW Ambulance will review the response to this incident in full and offer to meet with the family to discuss the findings," a spokesperson said.
Ms Scigala, a single mother, left behind three children, Madden, 12, Leo, 9, and Peyton, 3, who are now in the care of their grandparents.
Ms Hornery linked the case to the NSW nurses' strike on Tuesday, telling Parliament it highlighted a "chronic under-resourcing and paramedic shortage".
NSW Bureau of Health Information figures show ambulance response times in Newcastle in the September 2021 quarter were slower than a year earlier and have been trending down on key performance measures.
The median time it took paramedics to reach emergency cases rose one minute and 24 seconds to 12 minutes and 36 seconds.
The median wait time for "urgent" cases was 22 minutes and 18 seconds, up two minutes and 24 seconds.
The ratio of emergency cases which waited less than 15 minutes for an ambulance was 52.4 per cent, down 8.1 percentage points in a year.
This measure of ambulance performance has trended lower since reaching 71.1 per cent in June 2017.
The median time it took an ambulance to reach the highest-priority, life-threatening cases was up 36 seconds to eight minutes and 36 seconds.
"We are going backwards at an alarming rate with the data showing that ambulance waiting times are now the worst in over a decade," Ms Hornery said.
"Nurses are walking off the job today because they are exhausted under the strain of the health system."
The COVID-19 omicron outbreak had "made the situation even more dire".
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