By Oliver Lees
Ambulance services are under the pump across the state as COVID-19 restrictions ease, according to data released by Ambulance Victoria last week.
From October 1, 2020 to December, 20, 2020 the total number of code one ambulance call outs, which includes all life-threatening incidents, increased by 459 and 154 in the Hume and Macedon Ranges local government areas respectively.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the ambulance workforce is overwhelmed and the ambulance service is struggling to keep up with demand.
“Hospital ramping, resource gaps, response times, unstaffed MICA ambulances, regular escalations to code orange or code red, all point to a very dangerous situation,” he said.
“They are exhausted, morale amongst paramedics and ambulance workers has hit rock bottom.
“COVID-19 was a very difficult time but they have emerged from that challenge straight into the next. There is no downtime, they are regularly missing meal breaks and are working dangerous amounts of incidental overtime.”
Across the state only 79 per cent of code one call outs arrived within the target 15-minute response window, down from 82 per cent in the previous quarter.
This means that one in five patients did not receive an ambulance on time, according to the Victorian Ambulance Union.
Despite the trend across the state, the average ambulance response time in the Hume and Macedon Ranges local government areas are still less than 15-minutes on average.
The state government’s 2019-20 budget invested almost $300 million into ambulance services.
Mr Hill said with the health system still at COVID-19 settings, many people are accessing health services through emergency services instead of via their general practitioner.
He said it is important that Victorians remember to only use ambulance services in the case of life-threatening emergencies.
“They [ambulances] are not a taxi service,” he said.
“When people call for non-urgent problems, it can lead to crews not being available to respond to patients who really need paramedics help.”
Ambulance Victoria was contacted for comment.
