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A North Queensland woman says she is "traumatised" after being forced to wait four hours for an island medical evacuation when the region's rescue helicopter was unavailable.
The Townsville region is serviced by a Queensland government-owned rescue helicopter, but it was out of action on the evening of November 4.
That night Debbie Denison suffered a late-night haemorrhage on nearby Magnetic Island.
"I went to the toilet, and when I looked in the bowl it was just full of blood," she said.
Ms Denison made her way to Magnetic Island's doctors' surgery, where staff quickly examined her.
Magnetic Island is a 20-minute ferry ride from the north Queensland city of Townsville. (ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)
"They said we don't have the facilities here, you have to go to hospital," Ms Denison said.
"The chopper pilot was ill.
"The doctor said, 'We'll get the Cairns chopper down', but it wasn't available either."
Two hours had passed before alternative arrangements could be made.
The volunteer-run Townsville Coastguard arrived at Magnetic Island with paramedics.
They loaded Ms Denison on board the coastguard vessel and transported her to the mainland.
She did not arrive at Townsville University Hospital's emergency department until 2:30am, more than four hours after she first presented to the island clinic.
"I was still actively bleeding," Ms Denison said.
"I was pretty traumatised by the whole event."
Ms Denison arrived at Townsville University Hospital at about 2:30am. (ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)
Illness, maintenance blamed
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) manages the government-owned QGAir rescue helicopter.
A QPS spokesperson said the asset was available 94.9 per cent of the time during the past three months, but acknowledged staff illness and maintenance had affected operations.
Townsville Coastguard Deputy Commander Dave Finlay said Ms Denison was one of six medical evacuations the flotilla had responded to this year.
"Quite often the emergency services helicopter is busy doing something else. It is available 24 hours but it goes to a lot of emergencies," he said.
While the coastguard trains for medical evacuations, their main duty is responding to vessel breakdowns, with 120 call-outs so far this year.
Ms Denison was highly complimentary of the efforts by paramedics and coastguard volunteers.
But she said the Magnetic Island community expected faster medical evacuations and better access to a rescue helicopter.
Dan Purdie blames the former Queensland government for the service's shortcomings. (ABC North Qld: Jason Katsaras)
Police and Emergency Services Minister Dan Purdie blamed inadequate funding by the former state government for the service's shortfalls.
"Keeping Queenslanders safe, and ensuring appropriate emergency medical responses across the state, are top priorities for the Crisafulli government," the minister said.
"Unfortunately, the former Labor government has failed to adequately fund and staff QGAir, which has impacted the service.
"When QGAir is unavailable, Retrieval Services Queensland can coordinate an alternative emergency medical response and deploy other life-saving assets."