Goya Dmytryshchak
About one in four criticial patients in Hobsons Bay and one in five in Maribyrnong are not getting an ambulance on time, the Victorian Ambulance Union says.
Response times for the most serious medical cases were released last week by Ambulance Victoria. Its target is to respond to code one cases within 15 minutes for 90 per cent of incidents.
There were 1130 code one responses in Hobsons Bay in the three months to the end of June, with 76.9 per cent achieved inside the 15-minute benchmark.
The average wait time was 12 minutes and 50 seconds.
Maribyrnong’s average response time for 1011 code one call-outs was 12 minutes and nine seconds, with ambulances achieving the 15-minute benchmark 81.6 per cent of the time.
Union secretary Danny Hill said time was critical for code one patient.
“If we don’t get to those patients in time then it could be a matter of life and death, and that’s not an exaggeration,“ he said.
“Those targets are set for a reason: to try to get to those patients so we can deliver the best possible care.
“Unfortunately, given how busy it is, how much demand is on the system, they are struggling to get to those cases on time.“
A Department of Health spokesperson said the state government was spending $759 million across emergency departments, hospitals and ambulance services, including $266 million on additional triage services and non-emergency patient transfers.
Ambulance Victoria metro regional director Michael Georgiou said the entire healthcare system was dealing “with an extraordinary workload, which is also being experienced by crews right across the state“.
