Thursday, 7 April 2022

Ambulance services

Mr ANGUS (Forest Hill) (09:48): The crisis surrounding the ambulance service is continuing with the recent tragic revelations of the death of 12 Victorians, including four children. This was as a result of the failures in the 000 system where calls were either not answered or answered too late. The typical response by this government is to order an inquiry or pledge to throw more money at what they see to be the problem. The government needs to be transparent with the community and urgently address the real issues that are causing these terrible problems, which they have known about for a long time. Recent revelations that ambulance dispatch performance benchmarks have not been achieved every year from 2016–17 to 2019–20 show the government’s complete incompetence. What a dreadful situation it is now for all Victorians when we can no longer have confidence if we call 000 for help that firstly the call will even be answered and secondly help will come.