Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Northern Metropolitan Region ambulance services

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:38): (468) My adjournment tonight is directed towards the Minister for Emergency Services. I am concerned about the wait times for ambulances. It might also be directed towards now Mary-Anne Thomas.

Georgie Crozier: No, it is the Minister for Health. She is now the minister. They have changed it.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Excellent. Well, the Minister for Health, then.

Georgie Crozier: No, it is Minister for Ambulance Services.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Ambulance Services – no worries. I am concerned about wait times for ambulances for the Northern Metropolitan Region. Ambulance Victoria has an official response target of under 15 minutes for 85 per cent of all code 1 call-outs, which are the most critical. However, looking at the recent data from Ambulance Victoria, this target has not been met in the Northern Metropolitan Region. In Mitchell shire, which includes Wallan and Beveridge in my electorate, only 53.2 per cent of the call-outs for code 1 emergencies were under 15 minutes. This is nowhere near the target of 85 per cent and significantly below the statewide average. In Hume City Council, which includes Craigieburn and Greenvale, the response is a similar result of 53.8 per cent of the call-outs being under 15 minutes. When we look at code 2 response times, which are defined as incidents that are acute and time sensitive, we can see that the worst response times for these stats are in Moonee Valley, which includes Essendon, Moonee Ponds and Ascot Vale in my electorate. It has an average response time of 91 minutes. All local government areas in my electorate have code 2 response times above the state average, except for Mitchell shire.

These results are shocking for people in my electorate. Of course this is not a criticism of the paramedics. They do great work in supporting our community while doing a very stressful job. Rather, it is a criticism, I think, of the Victorian government. It is their responsibility to ensure that in all parts of metropolitan Melbourne Ambulance Victoria has the resources to meet its targeted response times and to ensure that Ambulance Victoria has the proper processes in place to ensure that those resources are distributed fairly. Unfortunately this type of situation is familiar to my constituents in the Northern Metropolitan Region, who have been long forgotten by this tired old Labor government. Labor has long put the needs of the north on the backburner, with infrastructure services lagging behind the needs of our growing population. The government must build the infrastructure and also build out the service delivery. I will always fight for better services and infrastructure for my constituents in the north, and I seek the action of the minister to explain the excessive ambulance response times in the north and what steps the minister is taking to address this issue.