Gippsland paramedics are being stretched thin as emergency response times in three of the region's shires sit above state requirements.
What’s happening: The secretary for the Victorian Ambulance Union, Danny Hill, told the Monitor that East Gippsland, Wellington, and South Gippsland are well behind other parts of the state in their code one ambulance response times.
Code one cases are high-priority, time-critical or life threatening emergency incidents that require an immediate response.
By the numbers: For regional areas, the Victorian government target is that ambulances reach 85 percent of code one cases within 15 minutes.
The latest Ambulance Victoria response data from January to March this year show how three Gippsland shires are behind this goal.
The average response time in Wellington Shire is 19 minutes and ambulances only arrive within 15 minutes 50 percent of the time.
In East Gippsland, the average is over 19 minutes, and ambulances only hit the required benchmark 55.6 percent of the time.
Then in South Gippsland, the average is also over 19 minutes, and ambulances only get to the patients within 15 minutes 45 percent of the time.
Ambulance Victoria Executive Director Regional Operations, Michael Georgiou, said in a statement they are always looking to improve response times – and that the statewide average had gone down 12 seconds in January to March compared to the previous quarter.
Spread out: One factor contributing to Gippsland being behind the state targets is its geographical spread.
“Paramedics rely on community volunteers and officers who are casual employees to respond to cases as well”, said Hill. “But the workload these areas generate, we just don't have the resources to be able to get to all of those cases in the right time frame.”
Stretched healthcare resources and jammed emergency departments are also leading to patients being “ramped” in the back of an ambulance or inside the hospital under paramedic supervision waiting for treatment, says Hill.
Situations like this are often due to a hospital not having enough beds or personnel to deal with the amount of patients.
“When it happens, you could have all the crews from Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance and Paynesville ramped up at the hospital, leaving the rest of the community in East Gippsland without any ambulance coverage at all,” said Hill.
Latrobe Regional Hospital and West Gippsland Hospital are both above the state average for median wait times.
Georgiou said Ambulance Victoria is always working closely with hospitals, emergency services and government partners to keep patients moving through the system as quickly as possible.
Toll on paramedics: Hill said the stress of the job takes a huge toll on the mental wellbeing of paramedics.
“A lot of these paramedics live and grew up in these areas, so it's their community as well, and they know that the resources are stretched.”
Hill said he’d heard of cases where paramedics were confronted in public by residents complaining about ambulance response times.
“It’s really distressing because it's not their fault, they're doing their best.”
How do we fix it?
To improve ambulance response times, Hill said the state needs more investment in ambulance branch stations but also advised people to consider whether their health issue could be dealt with at an urgent care clinic before calling paramedics.
“So many of the people that go to a hospital emergency department often don't need to be there,” Hill said. “If you need antibiotics for a fever or you have a broken wrist from a skateboarding accident, it can be dealt with at an urgent care clinic.”
Hospital upgrades ongoing
In April, the state government announced a $65 million investment to upgrade health services in Gippsland.
The funding will primarily be spent on improving West Gippsland and Wonthaggi hospitals.
At West Gippsland Hospital and the nearby Cooinda Lodge aged care facility, the investment will pay for infrastructure upgrades.
At Wonthaggi Hospital, the upgrades will include a new pharmacy, pathology clinic and medical imaging suite.
The funds will also go towards upgrading Latrobe Regional Hospital, and installing new ambulance stations in Traralgon, Moe, Warragul and Morwell, and the expansion of the Phillip Island Community Hospital.