AMBULANCE response times are being kept from the public by a state government hiding a growing crisis, Labor MPs say.
But Health Minister David Davis has turned the spotlight on federal health funding cuts and flow-on cuts to patient services.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan told Parliament last week Ambulance Victoria board minutes, released under freedom of information, showed it was ready last year to launch a website revealing ambulance response times for each Victorian local government area.
Mr Noonan asked Premier Denis Napthine when the data would be released online, but the Premier sidestepped the question.
Footscray MP Marsha Thomson said the government had gagged Ambulance Victoria from publishing ambulance response times to avoid acknowledging the ambulance crisis.
“If Mr Napthine was so proud of how his government was administering Victoria’s ambulance service, he would simply press the button and get this information online,” Ms Thomson said.
She said the latest data available under FOI showed response times had worsened for every ambulance station across metropolitan Melbourne.
The debate comes as Footscray’s only specialist Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance unit faces eviction from its Eleanor Street site after Ambulance Victoria’s lease expired.
The Weekly reported in December that Footscray could lose the unit, which is deployed to serious emergencies so paramedics can reach the scene as soon as possible.
The unit has now been granted a two-week extension while new premises are readied in Brooklyn.
