Gerald Lynch
Hume and Whittlesea municipalities have recorded improved ambulance response times for urgent care for a second consecutive quarter, 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 October to December, was 15.23 minutes, a 30 second improvement on a 15.53 minute average in the previous quarter.
The statistics show 63 per cent of responses were responded to within 15 minutes, improving on 61.2 per cent from July to September.
The average response time for patients requiring urgent care in Whittlesea from October to December, was 14.36 minutes, with 67.4 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 15.22 minutes and only 64.6 per cent of cases responded to within 15 minutes.
Ambulance Victoria metropolitan regional director Michael Georgiou said the latest data is pleasing, but further improvement is always welcome.
“We’re happy for sure, but there’s still work to be done,” he said. “We are definitely trending in the right direction.”
With Hume and Whittlesea seeing improvement in times two quarters in a row, Mr Georgiou is unsure if the downward trend will continue into 2024.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “It depends on a whole range of factors, but we hope to continue to go in a positive direction, working with other health services and the community to continue to see the best results possible.”
Mr Georgiou said an increase in availability in the workforce has helped drive numbers down, but there are other contributing factors.
“Both Hume and Whittlesea sit top 10 in the state for response times and some of the biggest drivers of that are the other care models people now have access to such as GPs, priority primary care sitters, and the Victorian Emergency Department service online,” he said.
“These additional services are taking unnecessary burden off of ambulances, allowing them to respond to emergencies faster.”
