IN the wake of recently released Ambulance Victoria data which showed the service is failing to meet response time targets in many regional local government areas, the Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell has called on the Andrews Labor Government to allocate additional resources to improve ambulance response times in Northern Victoria.
Ambulance Victoria use two official response time targets to measure their service performance – respond to Code 1 incidents within 15 minutes for 85% of incidents statewide and within 15 minutes for 90% of Code 1 incidents in centres with populations greater than 7,500.
The data showed that in five regional local government areas – Strathbogie, Indigo, Murrindindi, Pyrenees and Golden Plains, less than 30% of calls of Code 1 emergencies received an ambulance within 15 minutes.
Ms Lovell said in the three LGA’s in her electorate, Strathbogie Shire recorded just 25.5% of Code 1 calls received an ambulance within 15 minutes, Indigo Shire just 26.9% and Murrindindi Shire only 27.7% of Code 1 calls met the required response target.
Ms Lovell said the data showed the Andrews Labor Government had failed to adequately resource regional ambulance services and called on Minister for Ambulance Services Gabrielle Williams to allocate additional paramedics, equipment and vehicles to ensure Code 1 incidents meet the required response targets.
“To improve response times for Code 1 calls in regional areas, the Minister needs to take immediate action and allocate more resources and personnel to regional areas,” said Ms Lovell.
