By Alesha Capone
Average ambulance response times for the most urgent of emergency cases in Wyndham have increased by almost two minutes, within 12 months.
Ambulance Victoria recently released its average response times for between July to September.
The data showed that the average response time in Wyndham has reached 13.32 minutes for code one cases – which is classified as patients needing vital medical attention for situations such as cardiac arrest, heart attack or stroke.
In comparison, for the same period in 2020, the average ambulance response time in Wyndham was 11.33 minutes.
Paramedics responded to 2704 code one call-outs across the municipality between July and September this year, compared to 2206 last year.
The Ambulance Victoria report also showed that paramedics reached 74.2 per cent of code-one call-outs in Wyndham within 15 minutes or less, between July and September 2021, compared to 82.4 per cent during the same three months of 2020.
Ambulance Victoria aims to reach 85 per cent of all code one cases within 15 minutes.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Professor Tony Walker said the data showed the entire health system was “under significant pressure and increasing demand”.
Overall, Victorian paramedics responded to 80,459 code one cases between July and September, a 17.2 per cent increase on the same time last year.
“Along with increasing numbers of COVID-19 positive patients, demand has quickly rebounded to levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the lockdowns,” Professor Walker said.
He said that ambulance performance data has also been impacted by time spent transferring patients at busy hospitals and the need to don PPE for all call-outs.
Professor Walker said that in September, Ambulance Victoria launched a new service to help non-emergency patients across eight municipalities, including Wyndham.
The Medium Acuity Transport Service (MATS) is the first stage of a $266 million investment by the state government to reduce ambulance response times.
The MATS service, which consists of 22 vehicles and 165 staff, partners paramedic recruits with more experienced Ambulance Victoria staff to allow the newer employees to learn from their more senior counterparts.
“MATS crews are dedicated to less-urgent calls to free up ambulances to respond to the most critical cases,” Professor Walker said.
