Compared to other Gippsland councils, Bass Coast paramedics have the third best Code 1 response percentage behind Latrobe and Baw Baw, according to figures released from July to September this year.
Health
Paramedics and first responders across Victoria responded to close to 100,000 Code 1 patients between July and September this year.
In Bass Coast, there was a drop in performance, with 57.8 per cent of Code 1 calls responded to in under 15 minutes, compared to 61 per cent in the previous quarter. However it was an improvement on the same quarter last year.
The average response time in Bass Coast was 16:27 minutes (to 727 first response call outs).
Compared to other Gippsland councils, Bass Coast has the third best response percentage (Code 1 calls responded to in less than 15 minutes), behind Latrobe (71.9 per cent) and Baw Baw (59.4 per cent). However it has the second best average response time of 16:27, behind Latrobe on 13:53.
South Gippsland and East Gippsland have the lowest results in both percentage of Code 1 calls responded to in under 15 minutes and the average response time.
In the Gippsland region, crews responded to 6188 Code 1 cases between July and September.
State
Ambulance Victoria (AV) Executive Director Regional Operations Danielle North said there was a 2.7 per cent drop in demand compared to the previous three months, which was the busiest quarter on record for Code 1 cases.
As a result, ambulance response times to the most time-critical patients was 16 seconds faster on average across Victoria.
"Our dedicated paramedics and first responders do an incredible job working under pressure to provide the best care to communities across the state every day," Ms North said.
"Between July and September, we attended over 3,000 more 'lights and sirens' cases compared to a year ago and 27.6 per cent extra Code 1 cases than before the pandemic five years ago."
Performance against the 15-minute target for Code 1 cases improved in 59 of Victoria's 79 Local Government Areas (LGAs) compared with the previous quarter.
Ambulance Victoria (AV) urged people to access other medical services in less urgent cases.
"There are many options people can access when they need timely medical care and health advice all day every day, but not an emergency ambulance or calling Triple Zero (000)," an AV spokesperson said.
"This includes the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED), Urgent Care Clinics and other options such as your GP or pharmacist, or Nurse-On-Call on 1300 60 60 24."
