Gerald Lynch
Hume and Whittlesea municipalities have recorded improved ambulance response times for urgent care according to the latest Ambulance Victoria (AV) response statistics.
Code one incidents, those which require urgent paramedic and hospital care and use lights and sirens, are aimed to be responded to within 15 minutes.
For those in Hume, the average response time for code one cases from July to September, 2023 was 15.53 minutes, a 1.53 minute improvement on a 17.06 minute average in the previous quarter.
The statistics show 61.2 per cent of response were responded to within 15 minutes, improving on 53.8 per cent from April to June.
The average response time for patients requiring urgent care in Whittlesea from July to September, 2023 was 15.22 minutes, with 64.6 per cent of callouts having a response of less than 15 minutes.
In comparison to the last quarter, which had an average response rate of 16.26 minutes and only 57.1 per cent of cases responded to within 15 minutes.
Metropolitan regional and clinical operations director Narelle Capp said although Hume and Whittlesea were the third and fifth busiest municipalities in the last quarter in terms of emergency responses, the figures were strong.
“We are proud of our hardworking paramedics and it’s great to see performance improving in Melbourne’s north following unprecedented pressures on the health system due to COVID-19,” she said.
“Ambulances arrived at ‘lights and sirens’ cases on average one minute and 13 seconds faster than the previous quarter in the Hume LGA [local government area] and one minute and four seconds faster in the Whittlesea LGA.”
Ms Capp also expressed gratitude to residents for using the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) sensibly.
She said that with new ambulance branches currently being built in both Craigieburn and Epping they were hoping response times would drop even further.
