Victoria’s health crisis leapt to new heights overnight with Ambulance Victoria calling a code red, as hospitals and paramedics were flooded with calls for help.
A code red was enforced for two hours across metropolitan Melbourne, causing heavy delays for ambulances.
It’s believed the code red was called due to a severe workload for staff and ambulances again ramping at hospitals.
It comes a week after severe staff shortages led to a bottleneck of ambulances at three Melbourne emergency departments.
An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said their services returned to normal capacity within hours.
“Ambulance Victoria briefly enacted a red escalation of its emergency response plan last night in response to a period of high demand within metropolitan Melbourne,” the spokesman said.
“The situation was able to be quickly resolved with services returning to normal within two hours.”
Only 1 per cent of Victoria’s ambulances were available to respond to emergency situations before midnight.
Under code red protocols, people who phone triple-0 may be encouraged to make their own way to hospital, while non-emergency vehicles can be used for emergency events.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said he believed the issue would only get worse as the state entered flu season.
He urged Victorians to only call triple-0 for emergencies and said the health system needed alternatives.
“I think we need to look at what’s been done internationally, at what’s been done well in other areas,” he told 3aw.
“There’s so much else that can be done. We have what’s called secondary triage in Victoria and people who call triple-zero may be put through to a nurse or another paramedic.
“They can provide other pathways and alternatives to care that are effective.”
Ambulance Victoria recently experienced its busiest quarter on record, attending 91,397 code 1 cases – a 16.2 per cent increase on the same time last year.
Instances of ambulance ramping has been rampant in recent months, with the latest incident occurring at the Dandenong hospital on Tuesday afternoon, with at least ten ambulances banked up outside emergency departments.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker last week said the ramping was a clear example that the system was “still under pressure”.
“The reality is we’re still dealing with the issues of the pandemic. Our lives are returning to normal, but the reality is the health system is still under pressure,” he said at the time.
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the healthcare crisis in the state continued to threaten lives and believed it was a symptom of “years of mismanagement and waste”.
“Before Covid, Victoria had the worst funded, lowest staffed and poorest performing emergency departments of any state in the nation,” she said on Wednesday.
“Labor’s healthcare crisis is costing Victorian lives and is holding back families and local communities across the state.”
