Member for Western Victoria, Jaala Pulford MP has today lashed out at the Napthine Government’s neglect of regional Victorians following the release of secret Ambulance Victoria data.

 

The secret Ambulance Victoria data revealed that it takes almost twice as long for an ambulance to respond to a code 1 incident in the South Grampians region than the government’s target.

 

Code 1 incidents include stroke, heart attack, severe asthma attack and serious car accidents.

 

The government’s target for code 1 ambulance response is for 90 per cent of code 1 calls to be responded to within 15 minutes.

 

In the Central Grampians region, the region including Hamilton, 90 per cent of cases are responded to within 29.48 minutes.

 

Ms Pulford  said the Napthine Government has gone to extraordinary lengths to hide this data from the Victorian public.

 

“These are the response times that Denis Napthine doesn’t want you to see – that’s because Victoria’s ambulance system is in crisis and Denis Napthine is to blame,” Ms Pulford said.

 

“Ambulance response times across the state have gone backwards every year under Denis Napthine.”

 

“These leaked response times show what paramedics, doctors and nurses having been saying for years – the system is getting slower and patients are at risk.”

 

“Governments should be judged on their performance and the Napthine Government’s performance has been appalling,” Ms Pulford.

Key Facts

 

• *Data as reported in Fairfax Media today.
• Code 1 cases require lights and sirens and include callouts to cardiac arrests and serious traffic accidents.
• The government benchmark for Code 1 responses is 90 per cent within 15 minutes, and 85 per cent within 15 minutes in small regional areas (less than 7500 people).
• The last publicly released response time data was from 2012.
• The Napthine Government has been in a stalemate with ambulance paramedics over pay and conditions for over two years.