Ambulance response times remained mostly steady throughout local government areas in the Wimmera over the last three months of 2018, despite an increase in the amount of responses.
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Horsham averaged 10.30 minutes per code one response from October 1 to December 31, maintaining its strong response times of under 11 minutes for each of the last five quarters.
Ararat (15.09), Hindmarsh (19.24) and Yarriambiack (21.04) all experienced drops in average response times while Northern Grampians (14.33) was up slightly by three seconds.
West Wimmera times were up by nearly four minutes for an average of 23 minutes and 30 seconds.
All local government areas within the region except West Wimmera had lower response times compared to the same quarter last year.
Ambulance Victoria Wimmera group manager Tim Mayweld said the overall numbers are pleasing to see.
“Horsham generally performs well with some pretty strong resources so it is good to see the numbers remain low,” he said.
“We have done a lot of work with our crews in the region to optimise our resources and try and cut down those response times as best as we can.
“It is a credit to our crews to ensure they are able to clear hospitals as easily as possible and maximise availability.”
All six areas experienced slight increases in the amount of code one responses in the second quarter of 2018/19, with Northern Grampians paramedics responding to 25 per cent more cases in the last three months of the year compared to the quarter before that.
“It is good to see crews making sure the increase in demand doesn't impact on performance,” Mr Mayweld said.
“In the Northern Grampians there is a new station at St Arnaud that will commence operation which will help ease the load on other crews around the region.”
Mr Mayweld said he can only see the response times in the region improving as the year rolls on.
“The government has invested in the region, with further resourcing promises being made,” he said.
”It is really exciting to know we have the ability to help more people more quickly throughout the region.”
The average response time across the state was 11.12 minutes, making 73,797 first responses in the last quarter.
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