Ambulances are waiting outside Northern Hospital for far longer than any other hospital in Victoria, according to the latest figures released to the state opposition under freedom of information (FOI) laws.
Ramping times at the Epping hospital have risen by about 608 hours a month over the past three years (to 1081 hours), from 473 hours a month spent by ambulances waiting outside the emergency department in 2009-10.
The latest data also shows ambulances are waiting outside the state’s major hospitals for far longer than ever before, blowing out response times.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Greg Sassella also addressed the crisis in ambulance response times in his organisation’s 2012-13 annual report, tabled in parliament on October 31.
The report said Ambulance Victoria (AV) did not meet its response time targets during the year. It responded to Code 1 calls within 15 minutes in 73 per cent of cases, well short of the 85 per cent target.
Labor’s Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Wade Noonan, said AV denied the Opposition’s request for a suburb-by-suburb breakdown.
Mr Sasella said AV was well aware of response time issues, but denied the FOI request because the statistics were misleading.
But Mr Noonan said it was denied because of concerns the data might undermine the public’s confidence in the ambulance service and negatively affect AV memberships.
Previously released data shows ambulance response times are rising in Melbourne’s northern fringe suburbs.
On average, ambulances are taking 2.6 minutes longer to reach Code 1 calls. Despite this, AV group manager Anthony Carlyon said northern suburbs’ hospitals had more resources now as a result of a $151 million government commitment.
“In addition to increasing 24-hour ambulance resourcing at Sunbury and Craigieburn last year we will be introducing peak-period Advanced Life Support units at Roxburgh Park and Sunbury in early 2014,’’ he said.
