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Government says it refuses to be lectured by same people who went to war with paramedics
The call by state Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell for increased resources to address ambulance response times in the region has prompted a response from the state government.
The government said it refused to be lectured by the same individuals who previously made cuts to Victoria’s health system and clashed with paramedics.
Ms Lovell’s plea followed the release of Ambulance Victoria data, indicating that the service is not meeting response time targets in various regional areas.
The government attributed this challenge to high demand, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact.
Ambulance Victoria employs two response time benchmarks.
The first aims for a 15-minute response to code one incidents in 85 per cent of cases across the state.
The second targets a 15-minute response to 90 per cent of code one incidents in areas with populations over 7500.
However, in five regional local government areas, including Strathbogie, Indigo, Murrindindi, Pyrenees and Golden Plains, less than 30 per cent of code one emergency calls received an ambulance within the crucial 15-minute window.
Ms Lovell called on Ambulance Services Minister Gabrielle Williams to allocate more paramedics, equipment and vehicles to regional ambulance services to ensure code one incidents met the necessary response targets.
“In medical emergencies, the time it takes for a patient to receive treatment is critical to their health outcome and the latest data from Ambulance Victoria show the organisation’s code one call response targets are not being met in regional areas,” she said.
The state government said Ambulance Victoria had been facing high demand due to the pandemic’s impact, leading to a record number of Victorians receiving ‘lights and sirens’ responses.
It noted that despite these pressures, the average response time in Greater Shepparton fell, and various measures were being taken to bolster the ambulance service sector.
The government emphasised its significant investments in Victoria’s ambulance service, with 631 new graduate paramedics recruited last year, building on the 700 paramedics that joined in 2021.
It also highlighted collaborations with institutions such as Monash University to enhance paramedic training and expand emergency care pathways.
“We won’t be lectured by the same people who slashed $1 billion from Victoria’s health system and went to war with our hard-working paramedics,” a government spokesperson said.
“The 2022/23 financial year was the busiest year on record for Ambulance Victoria and this was reflected in Greater Shepparton — the region saw more lights and sirens incidents this quarter and the median response time remained stable and well within target.
“Our paramedics are the very best of us — that is why we have invested more than $2 billion in ambulance services since we came into office, putting an additional 2200 paramedics on the road, delivering new ambulance branches and investing in services that give Victorians alternative care pathways when they need it most.”