Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Ambulance services

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:45): (1301) My adjournment is for the Minister for Ambulance Services, and the action I seek is for the minister to fund a two-person MICA unit based in the Macedon Ranges shire to respond to medical emergencies in the area. I was recently at the Kyneton Show when someone suffered a cardiac arrest and required an urgent medical response. A call was made to 000, but I am told the closest MICA response unit, which is located in Bendigo – almost an hour away – was not available to be dispatched. The Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services was also at the Kyneton Show at the time this emergency was unfolding. She was on the stall next to ours, but she appeared to be totally oblivious to the situation, although she did leave shortly after the air ambulance chopper circled the showgrounds. I have been told that a MICA paramedic who just happened to be travelling home from a shift in Melbourne and was near the Gisborne turnoff heard the call on the radio and quickly changed their route to attend the call-out. Those who I was speaking with at the show were extremely grateful to this individual, who attended even though they were not on duty – a testament to the dedication of our hardworking paramedics.

However, relying on someone being in the area by chance or a MICA team being dispatched from an hour away is not sustainable. This level of service is not good enough for residents of the Macedon Ranges, who deserve better from the state government and their local member, who just happens to be the Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services. MICA paramedics are more highly trained, have a broader clinical skill set and can perform more advanced procedures. They can deliver advanced treatment for airway conditions and chest injuries as well as perform procedures for heart conditions, such as defibrillation for patients in cardiac arrest. We know the important work they do is saving lives, which raises a question: why are there so few MICA services available in the regions? Some parts of our state have no MICA coverage at all. In regional and rural areas standard ambulance services are more thinly spread. Distances from our small towns to hospitals are much greater, and the need for a rapid and mobile response to emergencies is more urgent.

These are all reasons to have more MICA units in the regions, including the Macedon Ranges shire, but instead of investing in more MICA units and improving care for regional Victorians, the 2024–25 state budget revealed that the Treasurer cut ambulance services by $20 million, and the 2023 Ambulance Victoria annual report revealed that there were 27 fewer MICA staff in 2023 than there were in 2022. I call on the Minister for Ambulance Services to establish and fund a two-person MICA unit based in the Macedon Ranges shire that can rapidly deliver a clinical response to high-level emergencies.