Ambulance wait times increase across northern beaches

Ambulance response times across the northern beaches increased in the last quarter, compared with the same period the previous year, as did the waiting time.

Ambulance wait times on the northern beaches saw an increase. Picture: Bill Hearne

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Ambulance response times across the northern beaches increased in the last quarter, compared with the same period the previous year.

According to the latest statistics from the Bureau of Health Information there was a significant rise in priority calls for potentially life threatening cases, raising from 8740 in October to December 2017, to 10,247 in the same period last year.

The median response time for emergency calls rose to 11.1 minutes up from 10.7 minutes in 2017.

The number of the highest priority call outs — where a patient’s life is deemed to be at risk such as in cases of cardiac arrest — rose minimally from 445 in the 2017 October to December quarter, to 449 in 2018.

Ambulance wait times increased across the northern beaches. Picture: Bill Hearne

The median response time also increased from 7.4 minutes to 7.6 minutes.

In the last quarter 63.3 per cent of priority calls were answered within 15 minutes and 96.2 per cent within 30 minutes.

The number of incidents classed as urgent, but not deemed necessary for sirens, such as in cases of abdominal pain, rose from 9,712 in October to December 2017 to 11,185 in the same period in 2018.

The median response time rose from 19.2 minutes in 2017 to 21.3 minutes.

A spokeswoman from NSW Ambulance said the number of incidents in total rose across the state in the last quarter with more than 306,700 responses, an increase of nearly 23,000.

“Despite this increase in demand, which was also experienced in the Northern Sydney Zone, NSW Ambulance had a median response time of 7.6 minutes to the most urgent incidents, against a target time of 10 minutes,” she said.

“This is the same as the state average.”

Ambulance responses have been a concern for residents on the peninsula’s north since the downgrading of Mona Vale Hospital. Picture: Julian Andrews.

Ambulance response times have been a concern among residents in the north of the peninsula, since their nearest emergency department at Mona Vale Hospital closed at the end of October last year.

In a letter to Health Minister Brad Hazzard last year, Dr Dominic Morgan, NSW Ambulance Chief Executive said the area incorporating Palm Beach, Whale Beach and Avalon Beach saw a median ambulance response time for emergency incidents at 11.97 minutes in 2017 to 2018, which was close to the statewide median of 11.22 minutes.

While there has been some concern around whether Avalon Ambulance Station was staffed, a NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said it is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Paramedics are a mobile workforce and the nearest available paramedics respond to an emergency call,” a NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said.

“Avalon is a permanently staffed, 24/7 fully functioning Ambulance station.”