Ambulance Victoria raises Code Orange as high demand causes long waits

Ambulance Victoria has denied police were forced to transport Melburnians to hospital as high demand forced the emergency service to raise its warning alert system.

Ambulances were in high demand on Tuesday. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Melburnians faced long waits for emergency health care on Tuesday night, with Ambulance Victoria forced to enact a code orange warning.

Ambulance Victoria confirmed it and metropolitan hospitals experienced high demand last night forcing it to escalate its “early warning” alert system — used to signal high demand, or reduced fleet availability — at 10pm.

“(We) managed the demand through the standard escalation processes,” a spokeswoman said.

The Herald Sun understands the situation eventually improved but the emergency service would not confirm how long the code orange alert lasted.

But Ambulance Victoria denied claims on social media police transported patients to hospital.

“Police are not dispatched to triage or transport ambulance patients,” the spokeswoman said.

She said Ambulance Victoria wanted to remind the community to only phone Triple-0 in emergencies.

“This is to ensure the sickest Victorians receive lifesaving care,” she said.

Regional hospitals have also faced rising demand this in the past week with Albury Wodonga Health warning the community on Tuesday morning it was facing “high demand across all services”.

“Please be aware that you may experience longer than usual wait times at our Albury and Wodonga emergency departments,” a social media post said.

Grampians Health posted a similar message last Wednesday, telling patients its emergency department was experiencing long wait times due to increased demand.

On Saturday Bendigo Health warned it was experiencing an increase in people presenting to the emergency department for primary care services.