Michaela Meade
A Victorian Ambulance Union (VAU) representative says now is the time to deliver a promised new ambulance station in Craigieburn.
VAU secretary Danny Hill said Craigieburn services were “absolutely stretched”.
“In a perfect world, we absolutely want those projects to progress as promised,” Mr Hill said.
“I think now, with the immediate risk of the [COVID-19] pandemic easing, it’s a good time to reevaluate.
“Really now, it’s time to get back on track and continue to build and improve the system.”
In 2015-16 when the state government pledged funds for a new ambulance station in Craigieburn the service responded to 13,084 code 1 first responses in Hume – the third highest in the metropolitan region behind Casey and Geelong.
In 2019-20, crews responded to 12,873 code 1 first responses.
Mr Hill attributed the slight decrease to COVID-19 and the municipality being in lockdown for much of 2020.
“We’re seeing a lot of people think the best option for them is to go to emergency,” Mr Hill said.
“That area [Craigieburn], that part of Melbourne, the crews spend, unfortunately, a lot of time ramped at Northern Hospital [in Epping].
“We do end up with local crews ramped at the hospital, which can lead to residents in the local area not getting the response they need in time.”
Ramping refers to when paramedics and ambulances are unable to offload patients at a hospital.
Paramedics are required to stay with the patient until they are admitted, which means they can’t get back on the road to respond to critical cases.
Ambulance Victoria’s (AV) quarterly performance data, released recently, confirmed that massive demand on ambulance services and emergency departments was having a disastrous effect on ambulance response times across the state.
From January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021, only 75.1 per cent of Code 1 cases had an ambulance arrive within the 15-minute response time target (down from 79.3 per cent in the previous quarter).
According to AV, one in four patients did not receive an ambulance on time.
Earlier this month, the state government announced more than $759 million in funding would be delivered in the Victorian Budget 2021-22 for more paramedics, more triage care and support staff for Ambulance Victoria.
