ESTA review must examine all options
I’VE again put forward in Parliament options to speed service responses to life-threatening code 1 and other emergency call-outs.
With a review of the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority under way, Country Fire Authority brigades like Kiewa Fire Brigade, in Indigo shire, are keen to provide immediate first aid while an ambulance is dispatched.
More than 80 per cent of Kiewa brigade’s members are first-aid trained and could fill the emergency gap until paramedics arrive.
Mallee Track Health & Community Service and Tallangatta Health Service are also trialling a community paramedic service until mid-year.
HMS Collective Community Paramedic Services is already offering in-home support in Central Victoria.
In rural communities like Loddon Shire, where it takes – on average – more than 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at a code 1 call-out, these CFA first-responder and community paramedic services are options the ESTA review must examine.
The Nurse-on-Call telephone service is also available on 1300 606 024 if you’re unsure about seeking medical help or you’re a long way from help.
I’m keeping the pressure on government to make our communities safer.
Find out more at taniamaxwell.com.au and search ’emergency’.
Tania Maxwell,
Member for Northern Victoria
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party
Health crisis must end
YOU can’t fix a problem if you don’t know how bad the situation is.
This is why regional Victorians deserve straight answers from the State Labor Government on Victoria’s health-care crisis.
Before COVID, there were record numbers of Victorians waiting for vital surgery and now there are record numbers waiting to see a specialist.
We are hearing that surgery wait lists have blown out to more than 100,000 but we don’t know because Labor is refusing to tell Victorians the true numbers or where they are on the wait list.
Coming into the pandemic, our state had the worst-funded, lowest-staffed and poorest-performing emergency departments of any state in the nation.
Two years on, state Labor’s neglect continues to dismantle good health care in Victoria.
Front-line call takers have been cut from 000 as Victorians in emergency situations are left waiting on hold.
Ambulance Victoria is regularly plunged into code red and suffers from severe under-staffing.
Maternity health services have been cut with closures to birthing wards at regional hospitals, leaving mothers worried they will be giving birth by the side of the road.
Labor’s health-care crisis was not caused by COVID but years of mismanagement, waste and a failure to invest.
Only a change in government in November will deliver proactive action on Victoria’s health crisis with a plan to work with the public and private sector to halve surgery waitlists within four years.
Peter Walsh,
Member for Murray Plains,
Leader of The Nationals
