Victoria’s hospitals and paramedics are rising to the challenge of record demand caused by a busy flu season, the latest performance data shows.

Across the state, ambulances recorded the best ever response for the quarter, despite responding to more than 8,500 extra Code 1 emergency patients than the same quarter a year earlier.

In the City of Knox, ambulances arrived within an average of 9:43 minutes during the June quarter – an improvement compared with 9:56 for the same period 12 months prior.

The data shows 92.1 per cent of Knox’s Code 1 ambulances arrived within 15 minutes – better than the 90.9 per cent a year prior.

Ambulances are also turning out to more emergencies. In Knox, ambulances responded to 1744 Code 1 cases, up on the 1529 responses in the June quarter 2018.

Across the state, hospital emergency departments saw nearly 32,000 extra patients compared with the same quarter last year. The Angliss Hospital treated 100 per cent of its Category 1 emergency patients immediately upon arrival at the hospital. The hospital also:

• Treated 10,458 patients in the busy emergency department in the June quarter – 640 more than the same period a year earlier
• Treated more than half of all ED patients within four minutes – a minute faster than a year earlier
• Completed the transfer of 88.1 per cent of patients who arrived at the hospital in an ambulance in the June quarter within the target of 40 minutes.

The busy flu season has put enormous strain on our nurses, doctors and paramedics. Already, there have been more than 40,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza across the state, including 10,000 children and more than 70 deaths.

That’s why we’re backing our health services with a record $12.2 billion investment, including a record $2.5 billion in the Victorian Budget 2019/20.

The Andrews Labor Government is stepping up its fight against the flu, making the flu vaccination compulsory for frontline staff in hospital wards.

The Government is working with health experts and hospitals on new rules that ensure nurses, doctors and other staff are fully vaccinated against a host of diseases, including the flu.

High-risk areas such as Intensive Care Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units and cancer wards will all become areas staff must be vaccinated. Workers who refuse to be vaccinated will be redeployed to other parts of the hospital.

Quotes attributable to Member for Bayswater Jackson Taylor

“The flu season has hit hard and hit early, but our nurses, doctors and paramedics in Knox have done an exceptional job rising to the challenge”.

“Our emergency workers always do an amazing job and this government will always invest in them and support them”.