By Goya Dmytryshchak
Ambulance response times for life-threatening emergencies have dropped across Hobsons Bay, Wyndham and Maribyrnong, June quarter figures released yesterday show.
Ambulance Services Minister Jill Hennessy visited paramedics at Point Cook to announce the statewide figures, which showed ambulances are arriving at 83.8 per cent of code 1 call-outs within 15 minutes.
The average arrival time was 11:12 minutes – 38 seconds faster than the June quarter in 2017.
In Wyndham, ambulances arrived at 86 per cent of code 1 emergencies within 15 minutes, compared with 84.4 per cent the previous year.
Paramedics were at 91 per cent of code 1 incidents in Maribyrnong within 15 minutes, compared with 89.8 per cent the year prior.
In Hobsons Bay, ambulances arrived at 87.6 per cent code 1 emergencies within 15 minutes, compared with 87.1 per cent the previous year.
Ms Hennessy said this meant the average time an ambulance took to reach the scene of a Code 1 emergency had improved by 44 seconds in Wyndham, 26 seconds in Maribyrnong and 10 seconds in Hobsons Bay.
“In an emergency, each second counts,” she said.
“We know there’s nothing more important than the timely arrival of an ambulance.
“This data is more than numbers – it’s lives saved and tragedies averted.”
The data showed a decrease in ramping at hospitals, with 86.7 per cent of patients handed over to doctors and nurses within 40 minutes, up from 85.1 per cent in the June 2017 quarter.
More than half were transferred to hospital care within 19 minutes.
Statewide, Ambulance Victoria paramedics attended 66,866 code 1 call-outs in the June quarter, up from 65,438 the previous year.
