Ambulance Victoria is responding more quickly to patients across all priority levels as a result of changes to better assess and meet the individual needs of Victorians.
We have implemented a revised Clinical Response Model focused on assessment of the individual need of patients and the most appropriate response for those patients to ensure ambulances are available for emergencies.
This has enabled a quicker response to people experiencing a time-critical, life-threatening emergency, with an estimated 7,000 additional Code 1 patients each year now receiving paramedic care within the 15-minute response target.
Victoria has achieved its highest-ever cardiac arrest survival rate as a result of changes.
MICA paramedics are more available and responding more often to people in most need of care, emergency department attendances have dropped, and key clinical outcomes for pain reduction and stroke have improved.
Importantly, the changes to the Clinical Response Model have proved safe, with no serious adverse events identified.
Ambulance Victoria has more ambulances available to respond more quickly to seriously ill people than ever before.
These evidence-based reforms and a sophisticated model of dispatching ambulances are part of the important work to modernise our organisation to deliver better patient outcomes.
The Revised Clinical Response Evaluation Report: Delivering our patients the right care, at the right time, at the right place, assessed data for the first three months of the fully-implemented revised Clinical Response Model – 12 October 2016 to 12 January 2017.
The Evaluation Report confirms the findings of Victoria’s Ambulance Action Plan that too many emergency ambulances were being dispatched each year to people who did not need an ambulance.
As a result of our changes implemented in three phases since October 2015, 50,000 people a year who previously received an emergency ambulance are now being safely and appropriately referred to an alternative or non-emergency service, or provided with self-care advice.