Broad claims state’s ambulance service in need of rescue

By Murray Silby

Feb 13, 2024

**Crisis:** Nationals Member for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad claims the state’s ambulance service is in crisis.

State Member for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad says a crisis within Ambulance Victoria is so bad one patient was told to take a taxi to hospital.

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Ms Broad said that just after 5am on January 23, a patient with severe abdominal pain was told to take a taxi to hospital, as there was a five-hour wait for an ambulance in Bendigo.

“In pain and feeling faint and concerned she would pass out in the taxi, the lady declined to go in a taxi and her son took her to hospital,” the Nationals MP said.

“This lady has paid her ambulance service fees for years, and when she needed one, it wasn’t there.”

Ms Broad told parliament that she was also alarmed by media reports that Ambulance Victoria was considering removing single-responder MICA (mental health and addiction) units from regional areas, including Swan Hill, Shepparton, Wodonga and Wangaratta.

She said, if pursued, larger centres such as Bendigo, which were served by two-member MICA ambulances, would also be affected by the reallocation of resources.

Ms Broad said the government was cutting resources across the state because Victoria was broke.

“The Premier, Jacinta Allan, called the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop a ‘milestone’; I call it a ‘millstone’ around Victoria’s neck,” Ms Broad said.

“The Labor Government’s priorities are all wrong. They continue to spend big in Melbourne, and cut services in regional areas.”

According to the most recent data, ambulance response times have improved but still lag behind their target figure.

For the first time in two years, the average response time to code-one incidents across Victoria was under 15 minutes.

That was achieved during what was the busiest quarter on record for Ambulance Victoria statewide, with a total of 154,267 emergency cases.

However, the statewide target is to respond to 85 per cent of code-one incidents within 15 minutes — and that figure was at only 67.3 per cent.

In Campaspe Shire Council, Ambulance Victoria recorded an average response time of 15-20 minutes for code-one incidents between October 1 and December 31, 2023.