Victorian Government blocks Labor's attempt to release ambulance, firefighting data

Ambulance Victoria has revealed it is failing to meet key dispatch targets, with more than a quarter of code-one emergency patients forced to wait longer than the benchmark 15 minutes.

The revelations came as Labor attempted to introduce a private member’s bill that would have forced the government to release emergency services data.

The government argued it had not been properly briefed, with Premier Denis Napthine branding the move a ‘political stunt’.

Almost on cue, Ambulance Victoria’s annual report was tabled to Parliament a short time later.

The latest figures show a slight improvement in response time, with 73.7 percent of code-one emergency incidents responded to in 15 minutes or less, up from 73 percent last year.

But that figures still falls short of the benchmark 85 percent.

Health Minister David Davis said it was a target that no government had managed to meet.

But he said Ambulance Victoria had "turned a corner".

Overall, paramedics exceeded quality targets with 52.9 percent of cardiac arrest patients surviving the trip to hospital.

The total number of patients being transported by Victorian ambulances has jumped by almost 20,000 to 681,806 in the past year.