Extra resources ready
Health experts are warning people to stay safe as Wimmera temperatures remain consistently above 30 degrees.
Ambulance Victoria is rostering additional resources in the Wimmera and Grampians, including the Grampians National Park and Stawell, until Australia Day, in response to rising temperatures.
Ambulance Victoria spokesman Peter Jenkins said extra hands on deck was a feature of the organisation’s annual operational planning for summer, ensuring the community was well-served during the holiday period.
“We’ll see a great deal of holidaymakers and travellers venture through these communities during the coming weeks,” he said.
“We work hard to ensure we can continue to provide the best care and timely responses to those who need us during these busy periods.”
Mr Jenkins said heat stroke was fatal in up to 80 percent of cases, but was also entirely preventable.
“Remember to stay hydrated and drink water regularly throughout the day,” he said.
“Avoid being outside during the hottest time of the day and keep cool by using air conditioning and fans whenever possible.”
Grampians Public Health Unit director of population and public health,
Professor Rosemary Aldrich said not everyone was prepared for the impact hot weather could have on health and well-being.
“We know heat kills more people than all other climate-related disasters put together,” she said.
“The body usually regulates its own temperature in its own context, but that can become difficult, either because someone is in extreme heat and their body’s mechanisms cannot manage it, or because there is an underlying condition.”
Professor Aldrich said there were three phases of heat impact – the first, heat stress, when a person cannot get cool, is sweating and uncomfortable.
“For the most part, you can get cool by going into a cool room and getting out of the sun,” she said.
Professor Aldrich said heat exhaustion occurred when a person’s core body temperature was between 38 and just under 40.5 degrees.
“You can start getting confused, irritable, terribly thirsty – unquenchable thirst – and that’s when the body is starting to get in trouble,” she said.
“If you don’t get cool, at that point it can move to heat stroke – when the core body temperature is more than 40.5 degrees. The body then starts to give up, and its physiological mechanisms start to not cope and you get dysregulation of heat.
“If your body keeps warming up, those particular mechanisms which do not work can lead to an acute and tragic demise.”
Professor Aldrich said some people were more vulnerable to impacts from heat.
She said people at extremes of age, including babies and elderly; people with cause to be dehydrated including pregnant or breastfeeding people, athletes, people who have a chronic illness and people who work outside; and people in conditions which make them susceptible including being homeless, not being connected to communities or services to know the warnings, living in old housing without insulation or not being able to afford cooling, are most at risk.
Ambulance Victoria joined Kidsafe and the State Government to launch a ‘Never Leave Kids in Cars’ campaign.
Ambulance Victoria reported paramedics were called to 1240 incidents of people locked in cars in 2023.
Kidsafe Victoria general manager Jason Chambers said leaving children unattended in cars could be fatal.
“The temperature inside a parked car can be 20 to 30 degrees hotter than outside,” he said.
“On a typical Australian summer day, that means temperatures inside a parked car could reach more than 60 degrees in a matter of minutes.
“Young children are particularly at risk as their body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult, placing them at greater risk of dehydration and heatstroke.”
Mr Chambers said there were steps parents and carers could take to avoid ‘fatal distraction’ – believing a child to be elsewhere and safe and unknowingly leaving them in a car with tragic outcomes.
“Place a child’s bag or toy in the front seat as a reminder, or leave something in the back seat of the car that you need to take with you when you get out,” he said.
People feeling unwell can phone NURSE-ON-CALL on 1300 60 60 24 or visit their doctor or pharmacist.
In an emergency call 000 immediately.