Broken hospitals and paramedics under strain cause ambulance response times to soar

A senior doctor claims patients are dying in unsafe hospital emergency rooms as a broken system struggles to cope with demand.

Patients are dying preventable deaths in unsafe emergency departments, a senior doctor has sensationally claimed.

Dr Stephen Parnis said the delays were “costing people’s lives” and the system was broken.

“It’s a dangerous place to be in an emergency as a patient now,” the former Australian Medical Association Vice President told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.

“I think that is utterly unacceptable.”

He said people who could have been saved were “without a doubt” dying.

He cited “prolonged wait times, lack of place to lie a person down (and) delays getting them to a bed” as some of the issues.

It's tough to admit, but my battery is running low. Burnout is real, & it's insidious. If I wait in the hope of my clinical work settling to a safer level, my ability to care for the community & my colleagues will probably deteriorate.
So it's time to practice some self-care. 1/2

— Stephen Parnis (@SParnis) May 4, 2022

He said the healthcare system did not have enough staff and resources to cope with the “overwhelming” demand and Monday was the busiest he had ever seen the emergency department.

“It was just awful,” he said.

“You just walk out with your shoulders slumped, thinking how can we do this?

“How are they going to cope?

“How can we give the care to the patients that they need?”

The burnt-out doctor said he was taking three months off work or he risked having “to walk away permanently”.

“We’ve had wave after wave (of Covid), particularly in Melbourne,” he said.

“We’re just trying to keep our head above water.”

He said there was a need for “serious systematic change” and pointed to two areas – aged care and GP care of chronic illnesses in the community – that he wants the Federal government to address.

A health department spokesman said the healthcare system was “under an unprecedented amounts of pressure” to the pandemic’s ongoing impact.

“But we’re investing billions to get it back on track as quickly as possible,” he said .

“The government’s $12 billion Pandemic Repair Plan will mean our healthcare workers have the extra pair of helping hands they need – so they can give Victorians the very best care.

“The plan includes getting more paramedics on the road, more 000 call takers, expanding emergency departments, and the training and recruitment of up to 7,000 healthcare workers to reinforce our health system, of which 5,000 will be nurses.”

Areas that wait longest for an ambulance revealed

A region in Victoria’s north has recorded the worst Code 1 response times in the state, with more than 80 per cent of callers waiting longer than 15 minutes for the first paramedic to arrive.

Performance data for the first three months of 2022 revealed Ambulance Victoria faced its busiest quarter in history and fell short of its time target, as the effects of the pandemic continue to place pressure on a stretched healthcare system.

Only 18.4 per cent of incidents in Loddon were attended by an ambulance within the target time of 15 minutes, the worst percentage in the state.

Indigo (24.6 per cent), Strathbogie (25.3 per cent), Pyrenees (29.3 per cent) and Golden Plains (32.2 per cent) finished off the bottom five.

Towong had the worst average time of 31.08 minutes, while Warrnambool had the best at 10.57 minute.

Nillumbik was the worst Melbourne LGA, recording 48.1 per cent, followed by Cardinia (55.8 per cent) and Melton (56 per cent).

Warrnambool had the best percentage, with paramedics arriving at 86.3 per cent of incidents in 15 minutes or less, followed by Yarra (78.7 per cent), Ballarat (78.4 per cent), Melbourne (78.1 per cent) and Darebin (77.7 per cent).

The busiest regions were Casey (4,770 first responses), Hume (4,584) and Greater Geelong (4,410) — the only three to top 4000.

Overall, paramedics are expected to respond to 85 per cent of Code 1 incidents statewide within 15 minutes, but only did so for 66.8 per cent instead.

The statewide average response time to Code 1 cases was 15 minutes and 15 seconds.

Calls are deemed Code 1 incidents when a patient requires “urgent paramedic and hospital care” and a “lights and sirens” response.

The time is measured from when Ambulance Victoria first receives the triple-0 call — as opposed to when a person first dials triple-0.

This means the patient’s actual wait time may be longer in cases where ESTA delays prevent the operator — the voice asking ‘police, fire or ambulance’ when you first call — from immediately connecting the call to emergency services.

Ambulance Victoria Acting CEO Libby Murphy said they recorded a slight improvement in statewide ambulance response times to the most critical emergencies — the percentage increased by 0.3 per cent — despite record demand.

“Our lives may be returning to normal – but the extraordinary strain on our hardworking paramedics and the entire health system persists,” she said.

“The data shows ambulances were called to 93,234 Code 1 cases between January and March this year – breaking the record set last quarter and making this quarter the busiest in Ambulance Victoria’s history.

“That’s a massive 14.2 per cent more ‘lights and sirens’ cases compared to the same time a year earlier.

“As part of a health system and our broader society, paramedics are not immune to COVID-19, with a peak of more than 500 paramedics sick, symptomatic or isolating in January. Today, we still have about 150 staff in isolation most days.”

Ms Murphy said their recruitment of 700 paramedics in 2021 was the single largest annual recruitment ever, and the recruitment of another 120 was fast-tracked for May this year.

She also urged the community to save triple-0 for emergencies, and said 45, 382 callers between January and March did not need an ambulance.

“We remain very busy, attending around 1800 to 2000 cases a day,” she said.

“While ambulances are always provided to patients when required, about one in five calls to triple-0 (000) do not need an emergency ambulance response.”

Originally published as Broken hospitals and paramedics under strain cause ambulance response times to soar