Ambulance services
Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Health. In August of last year, as a patient began to deteriorate at Maroondah Hospital, paramedics were unable to get medical assistance from hospital staff, forcing them to call a backup intensive care ambulance. That ambulance crew then treated the patient in the hospital corridor. The minister announced a full investigation into this incident at the time. Minister, what were the findings of that full investigation?
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:25): I thank the member for his question. That investigation is still being completed by Ambulance Victoria, but what I can outline for the benefit of the member is the work that our government is doing to ensure that patients are being transferred more quickly from ambulances to hospitals in order to receive the treatment that they need. Indeed the data that was released only last week demonstrates that the work that we are doing in terms of the rollout of the standards for timely ambulance and emergency care is making a real difference to the time it takes to transfer a patient from an ambulance to an emergency department. What is more, we are also very focused on ensuring that we have got patient flow right through the system and that we are moving people appropriately from ambulance to emergency department and then into a ward or indeed discharged home.
This is an opportunity to remind all members in the house that, as our ambulance services continue to face unprecedented demand, we have just come off the second busiest quarter on record – 98,000 code 1 call-outs. It is also an opportunity to remind Victorians that our government has invested in a range of alternative modes of care and pathways for care, including the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department. We have invested in the VVED so that it will be able to triple the number of patients that it can see every day, up to 1750. Similarly, we have continued to invest in our urgent care clinics, and we welcome the Albanese Labor government’s ongoing commitment to co-fund the urgent care clinics, which of course were pioneered in Victoria.
But I am very happy to follow up in relation to the first part of the question that the member asked and report back to him.
Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:27): It is a year since the minister said, ‘I want to know exactly what has gone on here.’ Can the minister advise the house when she will know exactly what went on there?
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:28): I think I have already answered that question. I have indicated to the member that I am very happy to provide him with further advice outside the chamber when I have that review completed.