Constituency Question
Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:42): (6136) My question is to the Minister for Ambulance Services and I ask: what additional ambulance services, including new vehicles or paramedics, have been added to the Wellington or South Gippsland shires in the last financial year? The issue, which the minister will be well aware of, is the poor performance of our ambulance services given the significant strain on the health system more broadly. Recently local government area response times were released, and the percentages of responses per incident that hit the 15-minute or less mark in South Gippsland shire were 47.9 per cent and in Wellington shire 60.1 per cent. That is not good enough. I have had numerous complaints about ambulance services taking a long time or even not being available at all—some people are just being referred to drive themselves to hospital. I have raised these issues with the minister, but I seek the information to find out where the new services are for my region.