Wife's heartbreaking final words to her husband as he lay dying waiting for an ambulance to arrive - as his family blame Dan Andrews' government for his death

• Stewart Grant, 82, died on January 29 while waiting 40 mins for an ambulance
• Mr Grant, from Cowes south-east of Melbourne, suffered breathing difficulties
• An ambulance wasn't sent immediately after his wife Carol called triple-0
• Mrs Grant's final words to her husband were, 'They're not coming' 
• Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews blamed longer waits on the Covid pandemic

The family of a man who died after waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance has slammed the Victorian government's claim that Covid-19 response times were to blame.

Stewart Grant, 82, was suffering breathing difficulties from emphysema at his home at Cowes on Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne, on January 29.

His wife Carol called Triple 0 but the operator did not immediately send an ambulance, instead asking her to describe his condition and telling her someone would call her back.

Mrs Grant was then forced to tell her husband an ambulance was not on the way, her daughter Lisa Hennessy told The Herald-Sun.  

'Mum went back into the bedroom and said 'I'm sorry, they're not coming',' she said. 

'These were her final words to him, and he went to sleep and never woke up. So, he died knowing there was no help coming.'

Ms Hennessy said paramedics called her mother back about 10 minutes after her first call and asked if she could lift her husband out of bed and perform CPR. 

Once an ambulance arrived nearly 30 minutes later, Mr Grant was pronounced dead. 

'This should never have happened. No family deserves to go through this,' Ms Hennessy said. 

'I believe that he would be alive today had the ambulance come sooner, and we are angry with the first operator who handled the call.

'We feel abandoned. The government is incompetent. They've had two years during the pandemic to hire additional ambulance and health workers, but the situation is only getting worse and the hospitals are banked up.'

In a press conference on Thursday, Premier Daniel Andrews was asked about Mr Grant's case, suggesting ambulance response times had been blown out by the pandemic.  

'Pre-pandemic we had the best response times since response times were recorded, but this global pandemic has made the job of our ambos really, really tough,' Mr Andrews said.

'They are all working as hard as they can ... But this global pandemic and the sheer volume of patients that have needed an ambulance has sadly put very significant pressure on the system.'

Health Minister Martin Foley said blame for the slow response to Mr Grant lay with how Mrs Grant's called was handled by the state's Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA).

'As I understand, the issue wasn't so much the dispatch of the ambulance. The paramedics were there, other volunteers in the nearby community were there, once the call was distributed,' he said. 

He said an investigation into the case was underway. 

Victoria's opposition leader Matthew Guy said the case was horrifying and demanded an explanation from the government.

'If it's the call-out and dispatch system, then it's the government's to manage... It's just not good enough to say it's someone else's fault,' he said. 

'How the hell can this happen in Victoria in 2022?.'

Ambulance Victoria has also sent its sincere condolences to the Grant family and reviewed the case.

ESTA's call-taking service is under scrutiny from several angles, with the Inspector-General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce looking at the agency, the coroner considering an inquiry into deaths linked to ESTA delays, and an independent review led by former police commissioner Graham Ashton.

Mr Grant's case is not the only recent death in Victoria following a long wait for paramedics.

In October, father of three Nick Panagiotopoulos died after waiting 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at his home in Preston, in Melbourne's north.

In the days after his death, the chief executive of ESTA Marty Smyth resigned.

Victorian paramedics experienced their busiest quarter on record in the last three months of 2021.

The data shows ambulances were called to 91,397 code one cases during that period, a 16 per cent increase on the same time in 2020.

Paramedics responded to two thirds of those cases within the average response time target of 15 minutes.