The town where just one in five emergencies gets an ambulance on time

Critically ill Victorian patients are being left to wait more than 30 minutes for an ambulance — longer than they were waiting one year ago. See which towns are worse off.

Ambulance response times across Victoria have plummeted, leaving some critically ill patients waiting more than thirty minutes for help.

Ambulance Victoria’s latest response time data showed some regional paramedics were under such strain, just one in five ambulances managed to reach an emergency within the critical first 15 minutes after a call.

The data, released last week, showed response times had slipped dramatically from the same period one year ago, despite state government investment in more paramedics and ambulance services.

The north eastern shire of Indigo, which includes the towns of Rutherglen, Chiltern and Beechworth, had the worst response times in the state, with just 19.6 per cent of the most urgent cases in the shire responded to within 15 minutes – a drop from 35 per cent at this time last year. Average response times for urgent cases were thirty minutes.

Ambulance response times in Indigo shire are the worst in the state. Photo: Robert Blackburn

Indigo Shire Mayor, Cr Sophie Price said she was “extremely disappointed” by the delays.

“Our residents deserve so much better,” Cr Price said.

“We know that this is not the fault of the hard working and dedicated ambulance officers and paramedics, but it’s clear that more resources are urgently needed.”

The neighbouring shire of Towong also had an average response time of 30 minutes, up from 25 minutes one year ago, while the shires of West Wimmera, Yarriambiack, Buloke, Loddon, Pyrenees, Moyne, Golden Plains, Moorabool, Hepburn, Mount Alexander, Strathbogie, Murrindindi and Mansfield had response times between 20 and 28 minutes.

Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill said the slow response times were a direct result of patients struggling to access basic health services like GPs.

“What our members are telling us is that about eight out of 10 of the patients they are attending to are actually not ambulance patients.

“They’re lower acuity patients that would really benefit from seeing a GP, or have been unable to get into see a GP and have then become unwell as a result of not being able to get the health care they need.

“Every time paramedics are tied up with a particular case, they’re unable to respond if a high priority case comes in,” Mr Hill said.

Ambulance union general secretary Danny Hill says a shortage of GPs is putting pressure on ambulance services.

Ambulance Victoria executive director clinical operations Anthony Carlyon said in a statement the organisation had responded to a record 100,000 Code 1 cases in the October to December quarter.

“AV continues to upgrade services in regional Victoria,” he said.

Additional paramedic crews had been added to rosters in Greater Bendigo, South Gippsland, Moira and Latrobe LGAs, while two new peak period crews had been added to services in Greater Geelong, and two new ambulance stations became operational in Moe and Warragul in November, he said.

Despite this, response times in Greater Bendigo, Greater Bendigo and Latrobe shire (which includes Moe) declined.

South Gippsland shire response times improved slightly (from 20 to 19 minutes), as did response times in Warragul (17 to 16 minutes) while Moira shire response times remained the same at 21 minutes.