PARAMEDICS and the state opposition are accusing the state
government of hiding the worst ambulance response times by manipulating
data.
In response to growing criticism about the government’s handling
of paramedic workloads, Health Minister David Davis has released figures
showing 190 more paramedics undertaking 8760 additional shifts in
dealing with 529,372 cases.
Mr Davis said the increase in the number of paramedics on the road
in inner-western suburbs and record number of paramedic shifts were
helping Ambulance Victoria respond to a record number of cases.
He said ambulance response data for the three months to the end of
March showed the Footscray ambulance service responded to 445 urgent
code-one calls, reaching more than half within 9.35 minutes.
The Footscray MICA Single Response Unit reached more than half its
358 urgent code-one calls within 10.26 minutes, and the Braybrook
ambulance service reached more than half its 201 urgent code-one calls
within 11.33 minutes. But Williamstown MP and opposition parliamentary
secretary for health Wade Noonan said this data painted only half the
picture.
“Mr Davis should be telling the community what’s happening in the
other 50 per cent of cases, where the ambulance service is consistently
failing to perform,” he said.
“Mr Davis and Premier [Denis] Napthine are so desperate about the
deepening ambulance crisis they are resorting to ‘cherry-picking’
response time data in order to mislead the public about the capability
of our ambulance service to respond to life-threatening emergencies.”
Budget papers released earlier this year revealed almost 30 per
cent of ambulances take longer than 15 minutes to respond to
life-threatening emergencies.
“More and more people are being left dangerously exposed while
they wait longer for medical care,” Mr Noonan said. “Mr Davis should
stop relying on spin doctors to fix the crisis in our ambulance
service.”
Figures obtained by the opposition under Freedom of Information
show in 90 per cent of response times up to December 31, the Braybrook
average was 22.37 minutes, Footscray 19.24 minutes, Yarraville 23.41 minutes and Altona 21.40 minutes.
