Ambos quicker to respond despite demand upsurge

Room for improvement: While Ambulance Victoria's overall response times improved during the last quarter, people are still being urged to use alternative care options in non-emergencies.

AMBULANCE Victoria faced its busiest quarter on record between April and June.

More than 102,000 Code 1 cases were responded to where patients required urgent paramedic and hospital care.

Despite this five per cent increase in demand, 64.2 per cent of cases were arrived at within the organisation’s benchmark of 15 minutes, compared to 61.7 per cent 12 months earlier.

Ballarat responded to 2424 cases at an average of 13.25 minutes, while Geelong responded to 5111 at an average of 13.55 minutes.

Ambulance Victoria executive director of regional operations Danielle North said the overall improvement comes at a time when the entire health system continues to be extremely busy.

“Our dedicated paramedics and first responders do an incredible job, working under pressure to provide best care to communities across the state every day,” she said.

Ms North said the response times would tend to improve even further if “everyone does their part” by considering using alternative care options in non-emergencies.

“There are many alternative care pathways that people can access when they need timely medical care and health advice but not an emergency ambulance,” she said.

“You can connect directly with the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department anywhere, anytime in the comfort of home and avoid a trip to hospital.

“Other options include your local Priority Primary Care Centre, GP or pharmacist, or Nurse-On-Call on 1300 60 60 24.”