Northern Victoria Region
Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12:25): (1825) My constituency question is for the Minister for Ambulance Services. In late 2020 Ambulance Victoria claimed my question about an 89-year-old woman waiting over 45 minutes for an ambulance to take her less than 2 kilometres to Wodonga hospital after a heart attack was inaccurate. Country ambulance wait times were the canary in the coalmine. The government ignored growing ambulance delays in Northern Victoria because of the contempt this Melbourne government has for the people of regional Victoria. Now the health system is collapsing across greater Melbourne and there is suddenly an urgency that something must be seen to be done. Slapping bandaids over festering wounds and hoping things hold together until after the next election clearly works in the short term, but when you are in government for a while eventually the wheels fall off. Recently this woman’s family reached out to my office to ask what has been done. We have suggested CFA volunteers, community paramedics, increased resourcing and realistic wait-time information. All we have seen from the government is spin and no action. Minister, what have you actually done to improve ambulance response times in Northern Victoria?