by Keith Anderson

Ambulances in Baw Baw Shire attended more than 1800 call-outs - almost 20 per day - to the three most serious categories of patient injuries and illnesses during the final three months of last year.

Figures published by the Victorian Agency for Health Information also show response times in Baw Baw - from when a call is answered at 000 to the time an ambulance arrives - were closely aligned to the state average despite distances between patients and hospitals often being much greater in country regions than metropolitan areas.
During October to December the 21 priority code zero life threatening incidents in the shire were responded in a median time of 9.3 minutes. The state figure was 9.2 minutes.
The median time for attending 897 calls for the second highest priority cases, code one, that includes people with chest pain and breathing difficulties, was 12.83 minutes in Baw Baw, just 30 seconds longer than the average across the state.
There were 918 dispatch code one attendances, the third most serious category and usually requiring "lights and sirens."
The median time for an ambulance to arrive at a patient was 12.82 minutes in the shire, slightly longer than the state figure of 12.27 minutes.
West Gippsland Hospital interim chief executive officer Shannon Wight, said although there were more ambulance and patient arrivals at the emergency department between October and December, there had been continued improvement in the percentage of patients being admitted within the targeted 40 minutes.
Ms Wight said the hospital also was performing well in relation to surgeries with all category one planned surgery patients admitted within the 30-day timeframe and categories two and three patients all being treated more quickly and in line with that achieved in the state.
However, the state opposition's shadow health minister Georgie Crozier said transfers of patients from ambulances to hospitals were still well below the 80 per cent target, falling 10 to 15 per cent short.
The health department is in crisis and patients are still waiting too long and reforms were needed to address hospital capacity, staffing levels and emergency department depart processes, she said.