Tuesday, 3 May 2022

Ambulance response times

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (12:19): My question is for the Minister for Ambulance Services. Last week Ambulance Victoria called a code orange, meaning there were fewer than 4 per cent of ambulances available, on top of ambulance ramping continuing and code 1 response times across the state being well under 60 per cent. I ask the minister: how many times in the past six months has Ambulance Victoria had to call a code orange or a code red because the ambulance system has been unable to cope with demand?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Before calling the minister I just warn members that if they shout across the chamber they are going to be removed without further warning.

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (12:20): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The most recent quarterly ambulance and indeed health system performance measures were released just in the weekend gone past. What those figures reveal is a stabilisation when it comes to the code 1 response times across our system for that quarter ending the third quarter of this current year. And that is in a time when we have had remarkable furloughing, record levels of furloughing, which peaked at over 5000 people in late January, including hundreds of paramedics—at a time in which we have seen record levels of demand for those code 1 responses and indeed—

Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance, the question was very clear to the minister: how many times in the last six months has Ambulance Victoria had to call a code orange or a code red? If the minister does not know the answer, could he at least take it on notice and actually get back to us, please.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The question contained a preamble. The minister is being relevant to the question.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, honourable Speaker. We do know as a result of unprecedented levels of demand as a result of the global pandemic that our ambulance services have been placed under huge levels of demand. Faced with this we have seen a number of code red announcements and declarations being made by Ambulance Victoria because of course Ambulance Victoria place the wellbeing of both their patients and their staff foremost in their activities. We thank them for it, and that is why we fund arrangements that go to—

Mr Walsh: On a further point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance again, in answering the question the minister has just said there were a number of times. Could he please just tell Victorians how many times there has been a code orange or a code red? If he knows the answer, please tell us. If he does not, take it on notice.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals knows that a point of order is not an opportunity to ask a question again. The minister is being relevant to the question.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, honourable Speaker. We do know that as a result of the global pandemic our ambulance services have been under pressure like never before. We have seen that come from a high point in 2019 when code 1 response times and the overall performance of our ambulances reached the highest level on record. What we have seen since then is the impact of a global pandemic and this government responding to that and Ambulance Victoria responding to that. The efforts that Ambulance Victoria, paramedics and the whole emergency health response system have put in place have been under the most trying of circumstances. Whether it is the 700 further paramedics engaged last year, whether it is the over $220 million component of the $1.4 billion investment announced into emergency responses in February, this is a government that will work with our ambulances, with our paramedics, with our hospital services, with our nurses and with our wider community to respond to this crisis.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will come to order. Order! The Leader of The Nationals has the call—without the assistance of members opposite.

Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance again, in the 20 seconds left can the minister please just answer the question?

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals knows that is not a point of order.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker. So you can make choices in how you go about responding to this global pandemic. You can choose to work with our health services, our doctors, our nurses, and you can put patients first or you can choose to wage war on them. We choose the former.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (12:25): With the unnamed number of code red or code orange situations posing many life-threatening situations to Victorians who may call for an ambulance at the time, I ask the minister: why did the government not issue an alert or a warning to notify Victorians of these situations so that alternative means to get to hospitals could have been put in place?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (12:25): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his supplementary question. The Leader of the Opposition, I think, fails to understand that that is precisely what Ambulance Victoria do when they put out code reds. They do so as an operational response, and they let their workforce and the community know. Of course that is as a result of the unprecedented levels of demand and service capacity that we have seen over the course of the global pandemic, and that global pandemic has seen this government make the choice that it will invest in and work with Ambulance Victoria, our paramedics, our workforce and our emergency services crews. We will, as a result of the global pandemic, get the investments in place to rebuild our healthcare system and our ambulance system and get back to those world-leading reforms.