MICA paramedic crews sent from Melbourne to cover country Victoria

Seven elite MICA paramedic crews were unstaffed across Melbourne overnight, with crews sent to patients in regional Victoria.

The MICA crews were sent from Melbourne to patients in Wonthaggi, Morwell and Wattle Glen.

Specialist ambulance paramedics were offline across large parts of the state overnight as Melbourne crews were sent to respond to cases in regional Victoria.

The Herald Sun has been told up to seven elite MICA paramedic crews were unstaffed across Melbourne overnight, with crews sent to patients in Wonthaggi, Morwell and Wattle Glen.

Sources said this took more than half the usual MICA fleet offline across the metropolitan area.

Victorian Ambulance Union boss Danny Hill said the serious resourcing issue left some patients without the care they needed.

“Overnight we received many reports of Advanced Life Support crews calling for MICA back up because their patient needed intensive care,” he said.

“But with MICA resources spread so thin across the city, crews just have to load and go without MICA support.”

Ambulance union boss Danny Hill says patients in Melbourne were left without the care they needed.

Mr Hill said Advanced Life Support paramedics were also left frustrated after being called to a case of a person requiring a tow truck who had made no complaints of medical concerns.

He said a passer by had called triple-0 and the call taking system had categorised the case as a person as being in an altered conscious state even though the person had not been spoken to.

“Even on the busiest nights, where emergency ambulances should be reserved for genuine emergencies, our members are being sent under lights and sirens to cases where there isn’t even a patient,” Mr Hill said.

“This isn’t erring on the side of caution. This is obstructing paramedics from responding to actual emergencies”.

A Triple Zero Victoria spokesperson said: “When a passer-by driving a car observed a person in a vehicle who appeared to them to be in an altered conscious state they called us for assistance. Based on the information provided by the caller an ambulance was dispatched.”

“Every day we receive calls to Triple Zero made by members of the community witnessing someone who appears to be in trouble,” she said.

“The type of emergency response callers receive is based on the information the caller informs our call-takers when we ask them exactly what is happening, and answering our questions.”

It comes as Ambulance Victoria prepares to testify before the parliamentary inquiry into the service on Friday.

Multiple representatives of Ambulance Victoria are scheduled to appear before the Committee throughout the day, including interim Chief Executive Officer Andrew Crisp.

Department of Health officials will also give evidence.

Originally published as MICA paramedic crews sent from Melbourne to cover country Victoria