Brimbank ambulance crews are regularly refusing to attend incidents in some areas without a police escort, a local paramedic says.
Morgyn McCarthy, based in Melton, said Sunshine and St Albans had numerous problem areas where paramedics had refused to attend without police back-up.
She said paramedics worked off a file of “locations of interest”, or places and addresses known for aggressive or threatening behaviour.
An Ambulance Victoria report revealed 11 locations in the Albion and Sunshine areas, eight in St Albans and three in Deer Park where violence had been identified as an issue.
One on occasion at St Albans, Ms McCarthy and a colleague left the scene of an overdose when the drug-affected friend of the victim tried to steal her medicine bag.
“We refused to go back in until the police arrived,” she said. “We had to leave the scene for our own safety.”
Police escorts usually arrive within 10 minutes of a request, but crews have been known to wait for nearly an hour for back-up.
“One one occasion, we had to wait about 50 minutes, However, it was not a critical incident,” McCarthy said. “It’s usually not too bad; it’s dependent on resources and what’s happening on the day.”
Ambulances often parked “around the corner” or several streets away from a violent call-out scene until police arrived.
“Otherwise you might have a family member come out and say, ‘You have to come in’,” she said.
Ambulance Victoria acting general manager of emergency operations, Mick Stephenson, said no paramedic was expected to enter a scene where violence is “likely or suspected”.
“We are continually reviewing our systems to provide the safest possible work environment for paramedics,” he said.
“Paramedics can flag addresses in our special patient information system to allow for specific instructions to be given to triple-0 call-takers and dispatchers, managers and paramedics in our communications centre and any future crews called to these addresses.
“The system is also used to flag addresses where there are safety concerns. We work with Victoria Police to increase information-sharing to better identify danger spots, including where individuals may be violent, have mental health issues, use drugs or own a firearm.”
