Ambo pledge

By Mara Pattison-Sowden and Kath Gannaway
YARRA Junction will receive a 24-hour ambulance no matter which political party wins the upcoming State Election.
Last week, politicans from both camps confirmed they would build a new station in the town if elected.
Gembrook Labor MP Tammy Lobato said her government would match a promise by the Liberal Party, investing $340,000 to boost Yarra Junction ambulance services and deliver 24-hour ambulance coverage, allowing for an additional two stretcher vehicles and three additional paramedics to operate the service.
“I have been asking for extra resources to support the increasing demand for ambulance services and these initiatives will now be provided to my constituents in the Upper Yarra,” Ms Lobato said.
Liberal Gembrook candidate Brad Battin said it was about time Labor “copycatted” the policy already announced by the Liberals back in July.
“It’s taken 11 years to get this to happen. If they’re going to keep taking away the hospitals, then they’ve got to increase the other services, but those services haven’t been increased in the same time,” he said.
The promises come as a damning Auditor-General’s report into ambulance services was released last week.
The report, Access to Ambulance Services, focused on ambulance response times and identified that deteriorating ambulance response times evident before the amalgamation of the rural and metropolitan ambulance services into Ambulance Victoria had not been arrested.
“Ambulances are taking longer to respond to Code 1 emergencies, with the worst performance since 2004-05 recorded in 2009-10,” the report stated.
The report also stated that response times in rural regions had worsened more than in the metropolitan areas despite increased funding.
It identified a significant increase in demand for emergency services in the past six years as being a major cause for the increase in response times, but says the extra funding and amalgamation of the services, which was intended to avoid the problem, had not succeeded.
The report has been a boon for Opposition parties in the lead-up to the election.
Christine Fyffe, MP for Evelyn, said the report revealed that 1906 people, or 31.3 per cent of cases classified as Code 1 (time critical cases) waited longer than 15 minutes for an ambulance. “I am furious that our health system is constantly being compromised, undermined and degraded by a government that is playing fast and loose with our lives,” Ms Fyffe said.
Nationals Leader Peter Ryan also called for action in rural regions saying the Auditor-General’s report confirmed that ambulance services were in crisis due to a lack of resources and funding.
Shadow Minister for Health David Davis also hit out at the government, saying “last minute (funding) promises weren’t to be believed.”
The Auditor-General called for greater transparency in reporting response times and, in situations which may relate to the Yarra Ranges, it stated that response time performances declined as population density reduced, and travel distances for paramedics increased.
The report called for disclosure of area-specific targets that took into account geography and branch staffing to ensure the public was better informed about the level of service it could realistically expect.
“The present reporting of state-wide measures omits the level of detail necessary to give this understanding,” the report said.