Ambulance services remain under the pump in Hume as the municipality recorded the largest increase in life-threatening code one incident responses in the past year, according to data released by Ambulance Victoria.
Latest Ambulance Victoria (AV) data reveals the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the service, with paramedics responding to 5004 call-outs in Hume in between October and December, 2021.
Compared with the same figures from the year previous, the Hume local government area recorded a 47 per cent increase in life-threatening code one cases.
The average response in Hume blew out to 16 minutes and 45 seconds, up from 15 minutes and 12 seconds.
The recommended average response time set by ambulance Victoria is 15 minutes.
The impact of the pandemic was felt on ambulance services across the state, with paramedics attending to an additional 1592 emergency incidents in the last three months of last year.
Ambulance Victoria Metro Regional Director Michael Georgiou said Hume’s record was driven by the large number of COVID-19 cases and patients requiring services.
“In addition to an increase in demand for care, our performance in Hume has been impacted by time spent offloading these patients at health services along with the extra infection control requirements we have in place to keep our people and patients safe, such as wearing PPE and cleaning our ambulances,” Mr Georgiou said.
“We are doing everything possible to relieve pressure in the system and get more paramedics back on the road and to patients quicker.
“While there are signs that infection rates are slowing, we remain very busy and continue to ask all community members to help us by saving Triple Zero (000) for emergencies.”
Meanwhile in Whittlesea, the average ambulance response time for code one instances crossed the recommended 15 minutes from 14 minutes and 20 seconds to 15 minutes and 29 seconds.
