Sharp increase in Victorian ambulance call wait times
Emergency ambulance call wait times in Victoria blew out dramatically in 2021-22 compared with the previous year, a report has confirmed.
Emergency ambulance call wait times in Victoria blew out dramatically in 2021-22 compared with the previous year, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Agency’s annual report has confirmed.
One of 265 documents dumped by the Andrews government late on Tuesday in a move Premier Daniel Andrews denied was “sneaky”, the ESTA annual report shows 64.2 per cent of emergency ambulance calls were answered within five seconds in 2021-22. That is compared with 87.7 per cent the previous year, and is well below the benchmark of 90 per cent.
The concerning statistic comes after Victoria’s Inspector-General for Emergency Management in September found at least 33 Victorians had died between December 2020 and May 2022 after waiting too long for their calls for an ambulance to be answered.
The report blames the failures on increased call demand due to “the Covid-19 pandemic, delayed health treatments and the removal of lockdown restrictions as Victoria moved to an open and vaccinated economy”.
“Ambulance demand hit an all-time high, with ESTA receiving an average of 412 more calls a day than in 2020-21,” the agency states.
“With the Delta and Omicron Covid-19 waves, we had 38 days where call volume in ambulance service exceeded … 3000, peaking at 3849 on 1 January 2022.
“Extreme demand, combined with staff furloughs, made it very difficult for us to meet ambulance call answer performance targets as outlined in the IGEM review.”
The agency said additional state government funding, allowing it to boost its workforce, had resulted in a “measurable impact on ambulance call answer performance.”
“In January 2022, performance fell to 39 per cent of calls answered in five seconds. By June 2022 this grew to 86.2 per cent, just below IGEM’s benchmark of 90 per cent of calls answered within five seconds ”
Ambulance Victoria’s annual report similarly blames “increased demand, the prevalence of Covid-19, the impact of patients delaying care, and the furloughing of paramedic and hospital staff” for “declining response performance”.
The most urgent “Priority 0” cases received an ambulance within the benchmark of 13 minutes 76.9 per cent of the time, while time-critical Code 1 emergencies were attended within the 15-minute benchmark only 67.5 per cent of the time.
The target of 85 per cent has never been achieved, but Ambulance Victoria came close in 2018-19 when it recorded its best ever annual response performance of 83.9 per cent of Code 1 cases responded to within 15 minutes of the call for help.
The increasingly stressful work environment at Ambulance Victoria appears to have contributed to a rise in the average cost per standard WorkCover claim, from $81,262 in 2019-20 to $100,261 in 2020-21, and $113,268 in 2021-22.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s Mental Health Services annual report showed a dramatic increase in the proportion of Victorians with “high or very high psychological distress”, from 14.8 per cent four years ago to 18.1 per cent a year ago, and 23.4 per cent now.
“Sudden loss of employment and social interaction, and the added stressors of moving to remote work or schooling with periods of lockdown, have affected the mental health of many Victorians,” the report found.
“There has been a sharp and statistically significant increase in psychological distress among adults in Victoria, and also among Aboriginal and LGBTIQ+ Victorians.
“Older people (65+ years of age) continued to report significantly lower levels (14.2 per cent) of high or very high psychological distress compared with the proportion in all adults (23.4 per cent).”
However, the increase in psychological distress does not appear to have been reflected in suicide statistics, with 10.1 per 100,000 Victorians taking their lives in 2021 – equal to or lower than the rate for the previous four years.
If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, call: Lifeline: 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au; Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 or beyondblue.org.au.
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