Three months after recording the fastest response times in five years, ambulance services have gone backwards in the Macedon Ranges, opposition Parliamentarians claim.
New Ambulance Victoria figures show ambulance response times across the municipality increased by a minute and 25 seconds, on average, this quarter (December to February), compared to the last quarter (October to December).
Macedon MP Mary-Anne Thomas told
Star Weekly at the end of October last year that emergency ambulance response times had improved significantly, and were the best in five years.
“Macedon and Hepburn patients experiencing life-threatening conditions can have every confidence they will receive faster responses from paramedics today … despite growing demand for ambulances,” Ms Thomas said at the time.
But the latest data shows a worsening of the situation since then, with response times up one minute and 21 seconds compared with the same time last year. And the number of code one extreme emergency responses taking longer than 15 minutes were up 24.1 per cent across all regions of Victoria in the latest quarter.
Northern Liberal MP Wendy Lovell slammed the Andrews government for “failing to deliver”, saying Macedon Ranges residents would suffer the consequences.
But Ms Thomas said a surge in callouts for Victoria’s freak thunderstorm asthma events last November had affected response times.
She said without the events, which crippled all emergency services, ambulance response times for the quarter would have been steady.
She said ambulance responses and elective surgery waiting lists had generally improved since last year.
Opposition rural health spokeswoman Margaret Fitzherbert said the increase in wait times in regional areas was as a result of the government’s Melbourne-centric policy.
“Patients in regional Victoria are still particularly disadvantaged, with response times well below targets. We have a crime crisis, justice crisis and a broken ambulance system.”
