By YASEMIN TALAT
LONGER waiting times for ambulances are putting the lives of Altona and Laverton residents at high risk.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information revealed that over the 2011/’12 period, one in four ambulances failed to meet the government’s own state-wide target of responding to life-threatening or code 1 emergencies within 15 minutes.
Member for Altona Jill Hennessy said Altona and Laverton residents were especially waiting longer for ambulances in life-threatening emergencies.
“Before the last election, the Coalition said Victorians deserved the highest quality ambulance services and had the right to expect timely responses during emergencies,” Ms Hennessy said.
But Ms Hennessy said the number of ambulances arriving at the scene of a life-threatening emergency within 15 minutes had dropped by 74.8 per cent, a blow-out of almost 6 per cent since 2010.
“This is the case locally, with Altona and Laverton seeing a deterioration of the average response time by two minutes and 43 seconds and two minutes and 24 seconds respectively since the election in 2010,” she said.
“Put simply, the ambulance system isn’t coping under this State Government.”
Ms Hennessy blamed the Napthine Government’s $616 million health funding cuts for the blow-out in ambulance response times.
“Delays in patient handover processes at hospitals are taking ambulances off the road for longer than ever before,” she said.
“Our ambulances are increasingly being used as pop-up emergency departments for hospitals that are struggling to cope with the Napthine Government’s savage health cuts.”
“We need our ambulances available to attend emergencies, not sitting in queues created by a lack of hospital beds.”
Ms Hennessy said ambulance paramedics were doing a great job under extreme pressure, but were being stretched to the limit by the Napthine Government.
