SAVAGE budget cuts are causing paramedics to waste more than 1000 hours a month stuck outside major western suburbs hospitals, according to documents released under freedom of information.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said the new data showed a blow-out in “ramping” time while ambulances wait for free emergency beds.
(Ramping is time spent by ambulance-borne patients waiting for an available emergency bed.)
“Ambulance ramping is a symptom of a struggling health system, because overworked hospitals don’t have the resources on hand to accept these patients,” Mr Noonan said. “We need our ambulances available to attend emergencies, not sitting in queues created by a lack of hospital beds.”
He blamed the state government’s $616 million health funding cuts for the rapid rise.
Ramping times in Melbourne’s west are up by more than 400 hours per month compared to when the Baillieu government was elected in 2010. Transfer times at Western Hospital in Footscray have soared from 307 hours per month in 2009-10 to 563 hours per month in 2011-12 — an 83 per cent increase.
The transfer time at Sunshine Hospital has jumped 61 per cent and at Werribee Mercy Hospital by 55 per cent.
Mr Noonan said the ramping contributed to one in four ambulances failing to respond to life-threatening emergencies within the government’s target of 15 minutes.
But a spokeswoman for Health Minister David Davis said Mr Noonan was “comparing apples with oranges” by comparing six months of data with full-year data. “The government acknowledges that ambulance ramping is a serious issue that needs to be tackled after 11 years of Labor mismanagement,” she said. “That’s why the government is investing $151 million to deliver 310 new paramedics and 30 patient transport officers.”
She said the Department of Health was working with health services and Ambulance Victoria to tackle increasing demand on services.
