Anna Inkerman fears her family won't get emergency medical help if they need it, after her neighbour died waiting more than two hours for an ambulance.
The woman in her 40s collapsed outside her Townsville home on Saturday morning and died on her driveway during the two-and-a-half hours it took for paramedics to reach her.
Ms Inkerman said the woman's body was left in the sun for four hours while paramedics and police investigated her death.
"No-one wants to see a dead body, especially their neighbour, and everyone knows her well."
Ms Inkerman says she is frightened to know how far away help can be.
"I am a mum of a little boy with cerebral palsy, so we do have scares where he stops breathing," she said.
"He has those issues, so when they do take times like two to three hours, that is worrying, that is scary, it is life-threatening.
"I feel their pain. It should have been faster."
Ambulance service investigating death
Queensland Ambulance Service has confirmed it is undertaking a detailed review of the case.
QAS data shows ambulance wait times for priority code 1 and 2 patients has increased steadily in the past year.
In September and October, at least two Townsville patients waited six-and-a-half hours for an ambulance, while a dozen others waited more than four hours.
Brisbane and West Moreton regions recorded the worst delays, where at least 25 code 1 and 2 priority patients in the past year endured more than 10 hours waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
It comes as the Australian Paramedic Association claims it is "on its knees" amid Queensland's Omicron wave.
LNP Member for the Burdekin Dale Last said the wait times should be ringing alarm bells for Queensland authorities.
"If you ring triple-0, you want a quick response," he said.
"Because of that delayed response, now these families will always have questions if that ambulance had turned up sooner rather than later."
Queensland Police said it was not treating the death as suspicious and did not comment on the response time of other agencies.
Minister defends paramedics
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said she was aware of the circumstances of the Townsville woman's death.
"It is certainly too early and completely inappropriate for the Opposition to draw links to any availability of ambulances to deaths when they are under investigation," she said.
"Let's leave it to the experts to work out if there were any contributing factors."
Ms D'Ath said the QAS had seen an increase in demand for paramedics since Queensland opened its borders in December.
"They've put in place a whole lot of new measures, including clinicians who man dedicated COVID lines to talk to people and triage whether they actually need an ambulance to come out to them or not," she said.
"For every one clinician sitting in that team, they're probably saving eight paramedics on the road from having to deal with those patients, so it's really seeing improvements."
