St John NT Ambulance response times increase to 23.6 minutes

The waiting time for an ambulance in the NT has blown out to the longest in at least a decade. See how the response times compare to other areas across the country.

Northern Territory ambulance response times are the worst they’ve been in at least a decade, new data has revealed.

The latest report from the Australian Productivity Commission shows that the average wait time for an ambulance in 2021/22 was 23.6 minutes in Darwin, and 25 minutes Territory-wide.

That time was up from 21.6 minutes last year.

St John NT Ambulance Service director Andrew Thomas said the increased response times were symptomatic of health service issues happening around Australia.

“Response rates for ambulance services right across the country have increased over the last reporting period, this directly reflects the higher level of demand due to Covid-19, the flu and other incidents which impact on the health system,” he said.

“For example, in the last reporting period, the total number of responses in the NT increased by 21 per cent.

St John Ambulance NT Director Ambulance Services Andrew Thomas said ambulance response times had been hit by a myriad of different issues over the past 12 months. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

“As demand increases, there is a direct correlation with the amount of time it takes for ambulances to clear cases at the hospital and respond to the next case.”

Comparatively, the NT’s response times came in as the third best in the country, just behind the ACT with 16.5 minutes and WA with 20.8 minutes.

Mr Thomas said the size of the service versus the number of incidents they had to respond to were factors that needed to be addressed.

“The response rate per 100,000 population demonstrates health services in the Northern Territory are dealing with a demographic of people who have higher health needs than other states or territories,” he said.

“The Northern Territory is also characterised as having higher risk factors with situations which require emergency medical assistance, such as car accidents, drug and alcohol related harm and patients with high acuity conditions.

“St John NT is working with the Department of Health to address response times, the ambulance service however should not be assessed in isolation of the other factors.”

Despite the challenges facing the Northern Territory health system, Mr Thomas said there were some positive statistics to keep in mind.

“It should be highlighted that 99 per cent of respondents to a patient satisfaction survey rated NT paramedics as providing a very good or good level of care,” he said.

“Furthermore, the trust and confidence our patients have in our paramedics is rated at 93 per cent.”