Making noise on ambulance response times

THE Labor state government is touting the latest ambulance response times as the best first quarter in eight years, but the state Opposition have accused Labor of fudging the data.

Paramedics reached 79.5 per cent of Code 1 (time-critical) patients within the target of 15 minutes in the three months to September 30 – a 2.9 per cent improvement on the same time last year despite an extra 830 Code One cases.

The average response time to Code One cases also improved – the average response time of 12 minutes and 14 seconds was 26 seconds faster than the same period last year.

Last week, Minister for Health Jill Hennessy said a record 454,018 patients attended Victorian hospital emergency departments this quarter – an increase of 32,486 patients or 7.7 per cent compared to last year.

In the quarter, the highest percentage of patients across all categories received their surgeries within benchmarks for timeliness for a September quarter, meaning median wait times for category three patients reduced by over six weeks since the same time four years ago.

“This shows our health system is working together – more efficiently – to get to more patients, in the recommended time, and deliver high quality, safe care,” Ms Hennessy said.

“Our reforms and investment means ambulances response times continued to improve despite big increases in call-outs.”

However, the Opposition says there were 58,803 Code One responses under 15 minutes in the first quarter of 2014/15, more than the 58,628 in the first quarter of 2017/18.

The opposition also says Labor has changed the criteria about which patients will receive a “lights and sirens” response, with 48,000 less incidents classified as Code One and 27,000 fewer Victorians getting a Code One response in under 15 minutes over the past year.

Shadow Minister for Health Mary Wooldridge said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had repeatedly refused to reveal which patients now did not get a Code One response.

“Daniel Andrews is hiding the fact that under his government, fewer Victorians are getting a timely ‘time critical’ response from Ambulance Victoria.”