Victorians face longer wait times for an ambulance and in some cases ambulances are not even turning up at all.
Sick and injured Victorians are even being forced to use taxis and rideshare vehicles to get to emergency departments.
The latest figures from Ambulance Victoria are the worst since 2015, when Labor downgraded more than 300 Code 1 callout codes to reduce response times.
Despite having fewer call outs for life threatening incidents over the past year, the response times have increased by 3.3 minutes.
Daniel Andrews told Victorians in November 2014 that“those minutes matter and too many people have waited too long for an ambulance and, you know, people have actually died and we can’t settle for that”.
The Premier has not heeded his own advice and is leaving Victorians to wait longer in dangerous circumstances – jeopardising their health and putting lives at risk.
The government today failed to acknowledge that more than 300 code one incidents were downgraded, including specific ambulance call outs for assaults, sexual assaults and stroke – all of which are now not counted in response times.
But the crisis does not stop with ambulance wait times, once patients arrive at hospital and into the emergency departments, they are waiting for hours to be admitted. Lying on a stretcher, in pain and at risk for far too long.
Victoria’s ambulance performance data was published this afternoon – over a week past its deadline.
Comments attributable to Shadow Health Minister, Georgie Crozier:
“Daniel Andrews promised he would save lives, but Labor has failed.
“What we have seen over the past few weeks is that Victorians have lost their lives because of the failure of the Labor Government to get the basics right.
“Labor’s ambulance crisis is worsening and causing more Victorian lives to be put at risk.”
