Ambulance response times in Brimbank increased between October to December last year, a new report shows.
During that period, local patients had to wait nearly a minute and a half longer on average to receive urgent paramedic care compared to the previous 12 months, according to Ambulance Victoria’s (AV) quarterly performance data.
The average response times for critical code one patients increased from 13.28 minutes towards the end of 2023, to 15.04 minutes in the same period in 2024.
With a total of 3132 code one call outs, 68.3 per cent were responded to within 15 minutes – a decrease from the previous quarter, where 69.8 per cent of 3279 cases were attended in the stipulated time.
Across the past five quarters, the three months to December in 2024 posted the highest average response time as well.
Response times in Brimbank were, however, lower than the Victoria-wide time of 15 minutes and 42 seconds.
The municipality also recorded a higher percentage of responses within 15 minutes, compared to the overall state result of 64.9 per cent.
Paramedics and first responders across the state, including in Brimbank, responded to nearly 100,000 critical code one emergencies in the respective quarter.
The period was also AV’s fourth busiest on record, with 99,799 code one call outs statewide — the third quarter in a row with close to or above 100,00 cases.
AV Metropolitan regional director Michael Georgiou said “there is more work to do”.
“AV continues to work with hospitals to promptly transfer patients and ensure all Victorians receive the right care at the right time,” he said.
“More new paramedics have also hit the road to help meet demand.”
