LGAs with the quickest ambulance response

There’s no good time to call an ambulance but where you live could impact how quickly they’ll respond.

Are you better off calling an ambulance in Frankston, Darebin or Boroondara?

There may not be any ‘good’ time to call an ambulance but depending on where you live it could mean the difference between life and death.

Data from the Victorian Government has revealed which Local Government Areas are meeting their ambulance response time targets with Maroondah residents receiving the fastest care in the state.

Ambulance Victoria has two official response time targets: Respond to Code 1 incidents – which require an urgent ‘lights and sirens’ response – within 15 minutes for 85 per cent of incidents statewide and 90 per cent for centres with populations greater than 7,000.

The response times are measured from when the triple-zero call is received until paramedics arrive on scene and are impacted by the distance to the scene, traffic, availability of ambulances and demand for services.

Worryingly only 19 of Victoria’s 79 LGAs are meeting their target with Maroondah leading the pack – 93.6 per cent of ambulances arrive in 15 minutes or less.

Other top performers include Yarra (93.2 per cent), Warrnambool (92.5 per cent), Knox (92.5 per cent), Darebin (92 per cent), Greater Dandenong (92 per cent) and Glen Eira (92 per cent).

Unsurprisingly regional Victoria had the slowest response times due to distance and fewer resources with ambulances in Indigo in the state’s north meeting their target just 28.1 per of the time.

Rounding out the bottom five were Loddon (31.1 per cent), Golden Plains (34.6 per cent) Hepburn (37.40 per cent) and Buloke (38.1 per cent).

Yarra had the quickest response times, with the average ambulance taking 8.8 minutes to arrive on scene.

Other best performing LGAs include Melbourne (8.9 minutes) and Maroondah (9.1 minutes).

The slowest response time was in Mansfield with the average call-out taking 23.4 minutes.

Other worst performing LGAs include Buloke (23.2 minutes) and Towong (23 minutes).

The response times are from pre-pandemic data when triple 0 calls reached their highest volume since the thunderstorm asthma event.