West Australian health authorities have confirmed they are investigating reports a woman in her 70s died after waiting for care at a regional hospital.
It is understood the woman waited for about three hours after presenting at the Busselton Health Campus hospital with back pain on Tuesday.
She died later that day.
In a statement, WA Country Health Service chief executive Jeff Moffet said a "sudden death" at the hospital was being investigated.
He said the patient was brought to the emergency department upon arrival, but did not elaborate further on what care the patient received.
"Preliminary information indicates the patient was brought into the emergency department upon arrival and sadly passed later that afternoon," Mr Moffet said.
"I feel deeply for the patient's family.
"Staff at Busselton Health Campus are also feeling this deeply — they are absolutely dedicated to caring for their community and are devastated to have lost a patient."
'A system under pressure'
The death comes as WA's hospital system and emergency response times continue to buckle under sustained pressure attributed largely to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"What you're talking about is a system under pressure and we are just a visible part of that system," St John Ambulance chief executive Michelle Fyfe told ABC Radio Perth earlier this month as ambulance ramping figures continued to rise.
Opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam has called on the state government to do more to help struggling staff at regional hospitals.
"It is concerning to hear that this patient had to wait several hours until receiving care and being assessed appropriately by the hospital,” she said.
"[The government] needs to illustrate a real commitment to this issue which can – as has been warned by many – lead to some very tragic outcomes."
Ms Mettam said Busselton Hospital was just one of many across the state under "extraordinary pressure" as it struggled with staffing issues.
A 'tragedy' to learn from
The head of the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association, Mark Duncan-Smith, said he hoped lessons could be learnt from the tragedy.
"Our thoughts go out to her family and I certainly would support any investigation into a tragedy which appears to have been related, in part, to a delay in treatment," he said.
"It's important that we honour the person by trying to learn from the tragedy to make sure the care is as best as possible, and hopefully such an occurrence doesn't happen again.
"Ultimately what the health system needs to do is to investigate, fact-check, understand exactly what happened, look at the systems that may or may not have worked.
The nearby Bunbury Hospital is also dealing with internal pressure after being issued with a WorkSafe improvement notice over claims of a "toxic" workplace culture.
The watchdog has given the hospital until September 8 next year to improve the culture and manage work-related stress, which were impacting on the provision of healthcare services.
