Ten hours that person waited a couple weeks ago...I can't imagine his death was pleasant and that the family is sitting around today feeling happy about the situation. Heads should roll...government heads, and yeah I mean literally.
I think, in smaller places response times can be less but, of course, most small communities don't have hospitals of their own and the ones they do have are often ill-equipped. They are beginning to upskill the firefighters here to respond in high-demand times when the ambulance cannot but that's not to transport people to hospital and offer the care an ambo can. It's a band-aid fix that won't help much in the long term.
As you say, it's the land of milk and honey where champagne falls from the skies and fairies sprinkle glitter on everything...until you're having a heart attack and have to endure several hours of agony until an ambulance arrives...but you die first. Oh well, let's all just move on...go play some video games and order Uber food deliveries.
But nah seriously, it's all good right? The world is getting better, thanks AI and Elon Musk, autonomous cars and supermarkets without cashiers and Amazon and Instagram and China and all the other bullshit they pass off as progress. It's all good.
Umm...but nope, it ain't.