Paramedics sound alarm on response delays and system failures

PARAMEDICS in Geelong are raising concerns about the impact of ramping and system inefficiencies on their ability to respond to emergencies promptly.

Ambulance Victoria paramedic Ben David said ramping could result in 15 or 16 ambulances, which represented the majority of Geelong’s response capability, waiting at a hospital.

“So that’s meant when emergency cases come in, we’re unable to respond to members of the public in a timely fashion because we’re stuck in a hospital corridor.”

Mr David outlined multiple issues hindering response capabilities, starting with the call-taking and dispatch system run by 000 Victoria.

“We’ve got fantastic call-takers and dispatchers that are really great at their jobs,” he said.

“Unfortunately, they’re hammered by an algorithmic system that means when they know it’s not an emergency case, the system’s still sending us out under lights and sirens to these non-emergency cases.

“So we see ambulances getting caught up with, you know, urgently attending cases that aren’t a true life-threatening emergency.

“And it means that there’s less availability when those life-threatening emergencies come in.”

Ramping at hospitals further exacerbates the problem, with paramedics often stuck in corridors and unable to respond to new emergencies.

“The other end of things is when we’re stuck in a hospital corridor and we can’t come out and get to members of the public in their time of need, we’re brought undone at the start of the job as well as at the end of the job,” Mr David said.

“We’re calling for amendments to our call-taking and dispatch system, and we’re calling on the government to fix hospital ramping so that we can do the job we’re meant to do.”

Deborah Baumgartner, an intensive care paramedic with two decades of experience, echoed these concerns.

“We don’t have any clinical oversight at the call-taking points,” she said.

“We need clinical oversight that can intervene in this risk-averse call-taking system; all these cases being rated as priority zeroes or code ones when they’re not.”

She believed clinical oversight could be managed internally.

“It could be done in-house. We’ve got the people who are capable of having that clinical oversight, but there’s no will from Ambulance Victoria to make that happen.”

“There has already been a report into this that started a number of years ago. They were starting to look at the way the call-taking was done, and then it was shelved.”

Ms Baumgartner said overtime and fatigue were significant issues, with paramedics working excessive hours.

“Paramedics are calling for immediate changes to the call-taking and dispatch system and measures to address hospital ramping, aiming to improve response times and ensure they can effectively serve the public in emergencies.”