Borough ambos quick to patients

AMBULANCES rushing to critically ill Queenscliff residents are meeting the 15minute benchmark in 60 per cent of cases — up 20 per cent in a year.

In Queenscliff, ambulances arrived within an average of 14.54 minutes, down from 16.07 for the same quarter last year — although almost four minutes slower than in Geelong.

Ambulances responded to 55 code one cases in the borough, up from 39 responses in the June quarter 2018.

Meanwhile, more than half of code one ambulances called to the Surf Coast arrived within 15 minutes (59.4 per cent), down slightly from 60.2 per cent the previous year.

Ambulances rushed to 300 cases in the Surf Coast during the June quarter.

Bellarine MP Lisa Neville said: “Whether it’s at hospital or in the community, patients who need expert medical care are getting the treatment they need thanks to the dedication of our nurses, doctors and paramedics.”

In the City of Greater Geelong, ambulances arrived within an average of 11.07 minutes in the June quarter — compared with 11.09 for the same period three months prior.

The data shows 84.4 per cent of Greater Geelong’s code one ambulances arrived within 15 minutes, up from 83.9 per cent the previous quarter.

Ambulances are also turning out to more emergencies. In Greater Geelong, ambulances responded to 3719 code one calls, up on the 3523 call-outs in the previous quarter.

Across the state, hospital emergency departments saw almost 32,000 extra patients compared with the same quarter last year, responding to more than 8500 extra code one emergency patients.

University Hospital Geelong treated 100 per cent of its category one emergency patients on arrival.

The hospital also reduced its elective surgery waiting lists to 1251 patients — down from 1420 the previous quarter.

Other improvements included: OPERATING on more than half of category one urgent elective surgery patients within 13 days — well under the 30day benchmark; TREATING more than half of all elective surgery patients within 33 days — one day faster than a year earlier; COMPLETING more than half of all transfers from ambulances to the ED within 20 minutes — well under the benchmark target of 40 minutes; and, TREATING 95.9 per cent of all elective surgery patients within the recommended benchmark times — an improvement of 2.6 per cent on a year earlier.