Geelong paramedics have reduced their average emergency response time by a vital minute and 12 seconds, Ambulance Victoria has announced.
Barwon South West director Simon Thomson last week announced the 10 per cent reduction in code one callouts, which require paramedics to use lights and sirens.
“Even with an increase in patients, response performance improved,” he said.
“We attended an additional 279 code one patients in the Greater Geelong local government area this January, February and March than for the same period a year earlier,” Mr Thomson said.
“Paramedics reached code one patients in Geelong in the first three months of 2018 in an average of 11 minutes and one second.
The response time was a 10 per cent improvement on the 12 minute and 13 second average during the same period last year.
“We attended 85.4 per cent of code one patients in greater Geelong within 15 minutes, an improvement of 6.1 per cent on the same period a year earlier,” Mr Thomson said.
Ambulance Victoria was well-prepared for the upcoming flu season with more paramedics and ambulances than ever before, chief executive officer Tony Walker said.
“While last year’s heavy flu season had a significant impact on the health of Victorians, we were able to not only meet demand but improve our response performance,” Associate Professor Walker said.
“We have continued that improvement in the recent summer months and are now well placed to enter the next winter peak with more ambulances and paramedics on the road than ever before.”
