Strained ambulance service enacts a code orange ‘most weeks’
A ‘code orange’ was enacted for Melbourne’s ambulances last night as paramedics struggled to cope with demand, and an Ambulance Victoria’s executive admits it happens “most weeks”.
At one stage last night, offload delays meant only eight per cent of metropolitan ambulances were available to respond to call outs.
Ambulance Victoria executive director of operational communications, Anthony Carlyon, says there was a code orange last week too.
“Most weeks we enact our orange emergency escalation plan,” he revealed to Neil Mitchell.
“It allows us to work with hospitals to prioritise the offload of ambulance patients”.
Mr Carlyon says a code orange does not mean those who need a lights and sirens response from paramedics aren’t getting it.
While 70 calls for help were left sitting in a pending queue waiting for an ambulance last night, Mr Carlyon says they “certainly weren’t strokes or cardiac arrests, or traumas”.
“We’ve had no reports to date of any adverse outcomes. Generally we’re aware of them at the time,” he said.
In the final quarter of 2021, 16.8 per cent of people calling an ambulance in NSW waited more than 30 minutes. In Victoria, during the same period, 33.9 per cent of people waited more than 40 minutes.
But Mr Carlyon says “they’re not doing anything we aren’t doing”.
Press PLAY below to hear more about the strain on Victoria’s ambulance system
Image: Nine