Ambulance Victoria has failed to meet its target for “lights and sirens” call outs, while 30 per cent of emergency department patients are waiting too long to be treated.
Victoria’s ambulance services are expected to respond to 85 per cent of “Dispatch code 1 incidents” within 15 minutes of a Triple Zero call being answered.
However the latest data from the Victorian Agency for Health Information, released on Wednesday, showed this was achieved only 66 per cent of the time between July and September this year.
The data also revealed Victorian hospitals failed to meet the target for emergency wait times, with only 69.8 per cent of patients receiving treatment within the clinically recommended time – with the statewide goal being 80 per cent.
This resulted in more than 2,300 Victorians spending more than a day in an emergency department.
Ambulance Victoria’s failure to meet its target for the highest priority callouts came despite the emergency service improving on the results from previous periods.
Between April and June, only 61.7 per cent of paramedics arrived within the target for “lights and sirens” callouts, while this time last year only 64.3 per cent arrived within the 15-minute timeframe.
Ambulance Victoria’s acting chief operations officer Anthony Carlyon said the performance improvements had occurred despite paramedics responding to more emergencies.
“July to September saw ambulances called to 96,594 Code 1 cases – 2,002 more than a year ago – making it the fourth busiest quarter in our history,” Mr Carlyon said in a statement.
“Despite this high demand, ambulances arrived at ‘lights and sirens’ cases on average 23 seconds faster than a year ago and 52 seconds faster than the previous quarter.”
Mr Carlyon attributed the improvement to paramedics referring patients to the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED), which eases pressure on the health system by assisting patients to get the most appropriate at home.
“Since October 2021, paramedics have referred more than 47,000 patients to the VVED, while a further 2,500 have been referred to the VVED following assessment by our Secondary Triage team,” he said.
“This avoids unnecessary trips to hospital and helps us get back on the road quicker to attend more life-threatening emergencies.”
