Ambulance Victoria declares code orange overnight as paramedics fall ill, demand surges

Demand for paramedics is at an “all-time high”, with their union boss revealing calls begging for workers are becoming more commonplace.

Code oranges are being called probably “two or three times a week”, the head of Victoria’s ambulance union has revealed

It comes after Ambulance Victoria was forced to declare a code orange overnight.

In a text message sent to paramedics, and seen by the Herald Sun, Ambulance Victoria implores its staff to pick up a shift “ASAP” if they are in a position to do so.

“Shift Location: Surge required to assist ALS (Advanced Life Support),” the text reads.

“Minimum 4 hours to assist with extra workload.”

Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill said code oranges were often called when the service was short on staff.

“There’s just not enough paramedics in the system at the moment to be able to deal with the demand, which is at an all-time high,” he said.

“They’re just piling more and more work onto (paramedics).

“(Code orange) is not an uncommon strategy now that they use in order to try and get more resources in ahead of when it’s busy, but it also allows them to try and do things like communicate to other parts of the system that they need to offload patients quickly.

Another code orange was declared in Victoria overnight. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“Or in some areas you might have quite a high number of dropped shifts, so they call a code orange so they can try and bring in crews from other areas to fill the gap.”

He said paramedics were struggling with the intense workload and urgent interventions were needed.

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said the health system remains under pressure from the pandemic, due to the “high numbers of staff required to furlough” and the “sustained increases in demand”.

“Ambulance Victoria and metropolitan hospitals experienced high demand overnight and managed the demand through our agreed escalation processes,” she said.

“AV enacts its escalation plan to ensure awareness across the system that there are increases in demand for ambulance services or a reduced ambulance fleet.

“Actions are then taken to stabilise the situation and return to our normal business.

“We work with hospitals to help transfer patients as promptly as possible so that ambulances can become available to respond to emergency cases in the community.”

It comes as the Herald Sun revealed that Victorian hospitals do not have enough funding or staff to open all their beds.

Peninsula Health chief Felicity Topp will step in at Ambulance Victoria. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Meanwhile, the head of one of Victoria’s busiest health services will take over leadership of Ambulance Victoria for the coming months.

Peninsula Health chief executive officer Felicity Topp has been appointed to head the ambulance service until September while its permanent chief, Tony Walker, continues leave to overcome a health issue.

Ambulance Victoria’s chief operating officer Libby Murphy had been leading the service in Mr Walker’s absence the year, however a message to staff on Tuesday announced Ms Topp was stepping across temporarily.

An Ambulance Victoria staff message said Ms Topp would “bring an extraordinary level of expertise to the executive table and the organisation” when she begins the role on May 30.

“I am sure she will learn from us, and we will learn from her, in further developing the service we provide to our community,” the staff email stated.

“It has the added attraction of Felicity later returning to the hospital sector with first-hand experience of AV’s challenges.”