A southern Tasmanian woman has described the health system as similar to a third-world country.
After her stay in the Royal Hobart Hospital, Fran Spears has criticised wait times and patient safety. Spears claims she waited nine hours before receiving a bed, and waited a further seven hours for treatment.
Earlier in June, Spears called an ambulance which took three hours to arrive. After reaching out to the Health Minister Michael Ferguson, Ferguson acknowledged there had been a high level of emergency calls on the day Ms Spears required an ambulance. This resulted in "a period of 1 hour and 50 minutes elapsing before an Extended Care Paramedic attended".