The NSW Ambulance Commissioner is blaming an spike in calls to triple-zero for longer wait times for ambulances.

Ray Hadley is aware of a recent case where a 16-year-old boy in Annangrove waited 40 minutes to be transported to hospital with strong heart palpitations.

The ambulance that ultimately picked him up had been sent from Northmead.

Commissioner Dominic Morgan told Ray emergency calls have risen by more than 500 a day from pre-pandemic numbers.

It’s forcing paramedics to make tough decisions on which cases are priorities.

“We make sure that we send out our ambulances to those ones that we think are going to be immediately life-threatening,” he said.

“A cardiac arrest or someone drowning in a pool, that’s what we would consider our highest response category.”

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