By XAVIER SMERDON
Exclusive
THE biggest news for Wyndham’s emergency services in years could save countless local lives, according to industry experts.
Ambulance Victoria confirmed last week that a Mobile Intensive Care (MICA) Unit had been established in Hoppers Crossing after years of pressure from Wyndham Council and other lobby groups.
Ambulance Victoria Group Manager MICA West, Lindsay Bent, said 11 paramedics would run out of the unit, located in Desire Place in Hoppers Crossing.
“Ambulance Victoria is operating a Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance and an Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance from a new site in Hoppers Crossing,” Mr Bent said.
“Led by team manager Adrian Scrofani, both teams operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week with four paramedics on hand at any one time, comprised of two MICA paramedics and two ALS paramedics.”
MICA paramedics are highly trained members of Ambulance Victoria that are equipped to provide a more specialised care than normal paramedics, according to Mr Bent.
“ALS paramedics are trained to respond to any request for an emergency ambulance and provide a high level of pre-hospital emergency care. MICA paramedics have undergone further extensive training and are dispatched to patients who are likely to require more specialised pre-hospital care,” he said.
“These types of patients include severe respiratory cases, significant trauma and various cardiac emergencies.”
Mr Bent said that the news would affect people in neighbouring municipalities as well as those in Wyndham.
“The people of Wyndham and surrounding communities should experience improved service and response times due to these resources now being located in Hoppers Crossing,” he said.
“Response times are not the only measure of a quality ambulance service. We continue to see improvements in patient outcomes due to our advanced pre-hospital care and specialised transport.”
In June last year Star revealed that then mayor, Kim McAliney, was pushing for a MICA Unit to be established in Wyndham.
Wyndham’s population is expected to exceed 245,000 people in just over eight years, placing more pressure on all of the municipality’s emergency services.
