ONE in four ambulances are failing to meet state government targets for life-threatening emergencies in Victoria, according to figures released under freedom of information.
Ambulance response times blew out last year compared with the previous year, rising by almost 1½ minutes in Braybrook to 12 minutes 28 seconds and up 23 seconds to an average of almost 11 minutes in Footscray.
Footscray state MP Marsha Thomson said that a quarter of ambulances were exceeding the government target of 15 minutes.
“These figures reveal that ambulances are taking longer to reach car accidents and heart attack victims in need of life-saving assistance,” she said. “Every minute counts when it comes to ambulance response times. We know that the speed in which a patient reaches hospital can affect a patient’s chances of recovery.”
Ambulance Victoria regional manager Simon Thomson said response times could be affected by factors including traffic, road and weather conditions, distance required to travel, demand for ambulance services, hospital transfer times and availability of crews.
“They are not the only measure of a quality ambulance service. We continue to see improvements in the more important measures of whether people live or die, and the quality of their life, for cardiac arrest, heart attack, stroke and head trauma patients,” he said.
Ambulance Victoria transports about 1750 patients to hospital each day, up from 616,982 in 2009-10 to 639,735 in 2010-11.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister David Davis questioned the validity of the figures obtained by the Labor Party and would not comment on “factually incorrect” information.
