Hannah Hammoud
Brimbank has recorded the quickest response time for urgent care in over a year according to the latest Ambulance Victoria (AV) response statistics.
The latest statistics display Ambulance Victoria’s response times from July 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023.
The average response time for patients requiring urgent care in Brimbank from July to September, 2023, was 14.23 minutes, an improvement from 15.03 minutes a year ago and 15.29 minutes in the previous quarter.
Ambulance Victoria metropolitan regional and clinical operations director Narelle Capp said Ambulance attended 3,063 Code 1 cases between July and September in Brimbank – making it the sixth busiest local government area (LGA) in Victoria.
Code one incidents, those which require urgent paramedic and hospital care and use lights and sirens, are aimed to be responded to within 15 minutes.
Of the 3063 responses in Brimbank, 69 per cent of them had a response time of less than 15 minutes.
“Despite this high demand, ambulances arrived at ‘lights and sirens’ cases in Brimbank on average one minute and six seconds faster than the previous quarter,” Ms Capp said.
Response time is measured from the time from a triple-0 call is answered and registered by the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA), to the time the first AV resource arrives at the incident scene.
Response time improvements were said to be aided by more community members accessing alternative and ‘virtual’ care services for less urgent cases, avoiding unnecessary trips to hospitals. Brimbank residents are also able to access the Priority Primary Care Clinic in Sunshine.
“We are proud of our hardworking paramedics and it’s great to see performance improving in Brimbank following unprecedented pressures on the health system due to COVID-19,” Ms Capp said.
“It is also great to see people in Brimbank embracing the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) for non-urgent cases to avoid unnecessary trips to our emergency departments.”
