Fears Victorians will be left to die as ambulance service struggles to cope with rural caseload

Ambulance Victoria whistleblowers say Melbourne crews are being diverted to country jobs as critical call-outs rise.

Victoria’s rural ambulance service is at breaking point, crews have warned.

Victoria’s rural ambulance service is at breaking point with crews being diverted from Melbourne to country Victoria to deal with the caseload, paramedics have warned.

Ambulance Victoria whistleblowers have told the Herald Sun Victorians will be left to die if the state government doesn’t intervene to boost resources.

They say a series of concerning cases over the past fortnight have increased fears about response times and the availability of suitable responders, including:

* No MICA paramedics available to attend to a four-month-old cardiac arrest patient in Kangaroo Flat, near Bendigo, at the weekend.

* A crew forced to travel 70km from Rochester to Bendigo to attend to a critical Code 1 call out.

* Crews diverted from Melbourne to attend to country jobs

Paramedics say an increase in demand and the extra time taken to apply personal protective equipment to keep patients and themselves safe has reduced the ability to quickly move between call outs.

Ambulance union state secretary Danny Hill said Bendigo and other regional centres had been identified as particularly at risk.

“Members are telling us that their workload is returning to pre-COVID-19 levels and they don’t have enough resources to respond to patients. We need more paramedics and more ambulances, especially in major regional centres like Bendigo,” he said.

“Bendigo is particularly stretched and paramedics who work there have said they are genuinely worried that if they or their families need an ambulance, it may not come in time.

“The lack of resources in Bendigo has led to single responder units transporting patients to hospital. Meanwhile nearby towns like Heathcote and Castlemaine are being left uncovered while their ambulances are responding to cases in Bendigo.”

It comes amid an unprecedented rise in the most critical call-outs since Melbourne’s stage four restrictions were lifted, as exclusively detailed in Wednesday’s Herald Sun.

Regional Victoria has seen an 11.4 per cent increase in ambulance call-outs compared to before COVID-19.

Ambulance Victoria Loddon Mallee Regional Director Michael Georgiou said at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ambulance Victoria had improved its performance in Loddon Mallee, which includes Bendigo.

“In Loddon Mallee, emergency ambulances were called to 4,493 Code 1 patients in July, August and September – 178 more patients than the previous quarter,” he said.

“We reached 70.3 per cent of those patients within 15 minutes.

“Just like busy Emergency Departments, the nature of the ambulance emergency work means we deal with peaks and troughs of activity and we work hard to ensure we have ways to deal with these fluctuations as they occur.

“When peaks in patient demand happen, we redeploy other ambulances into the area, work with our colleagues at hospitals to free up ambulances, and call on other paramedics and first responders to help ensure we can continue to serve the community.”

Mr Georgiou said he was confident that staffing levels were meeting the demands of the Greater Bendigo community.

“As we look towards another busy summer and Christmas period, we’re preparing for a significant increase in demand and will have extra resources rostered on to meet this demand,” he said.

Health minister Martin Foley said the government had invested a record $1 billion to employ hundreds more paramedics, build more stations across the state and get more ambulances on the road.

“We know there are times when ambulances don’t arrive as fast as we’d like, which is why we’re continuing to work with local communities to ensure ambulances are getting to the scene of emergencies even sooner,” he said.

“Ambulance Victoria advises that its staffing levels are meeting the needs of the Greater Bendigo community and it will allocate extra resources in Greater Bendigo to meet the significant increase in demand over the Christmas period.”

Opposition spokeswoman for Ambulance Services, Georgie Crozier, said Victorian paramedics needed to feel supported.

“Victorians can’t afford for the Andrews Government to be cutting costs and resources to the very people that keep us safe,” she said.

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Originally published as Fears Victorians will be left to die as ambulance service struggles to cope with rural caseload