An elderly woman spent more than three hours in the back of an ambulance ramped outside a major Adelaide hospital, after a nasty fall.

Agatha, 93, was among more than a dozen patients stranded outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital today, with beds filled to critical overcrowding.

Her daughter Annalisa Tiggemann told 9News Agatha had told her, “I’d rather die than stay here”.

Agatha, 93, was left in an ambulance for hours after a fall, unable to be admitted to hospital. (9News)

Agatha waited more than 40 minutes for paramedics to arrive at her Kilburn home after she suffered her fall.

The response time for patients in her category should be 16 minutes.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said there had been a number of “urgent walk-ins” in Adelaide’s hospitals this morning.

The government has reached an agreement that it claims will put more paramedics on the road, though not until next year, while more emergency beds won’t be fully delivered until 2026.

Ramping is an ongoing problem for Adelaide hospitals. (9News)

“To see someone on the doorstep of a hospital and not be able to get the urgent medical help they need is just completely demoralising,” Leah Watkins of the Ambulance Employees Association said.

Ms Tiggemann is worried about what could happen to her mother, and other patients, in the future.

“I don’t want my mother dying in an ambulance,” she said.



This content first appear on 9news

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