Melbourne endures period with no available ambulances during 'code red'
Staff shortages are pushing Victoria's ambulance service to breaking point with ramped vehicles seen outside hospitals this morning, following the declaration of a code red.
Ambulance Victoria declared another code red 12:15am Tuesday, which lasted four hours.
It comes just over a month after another code red, lasting an hour, was declared.
9News reporter Christine Ahern said "at one point during that four-hour period there were no ambulances available in Melbourne if you called 000."
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Staff shortages are placing pressure on Ambulance Victoria, with ramped vehicles seen outside hospitals this morning. Today
Speaking to Today, Danny Hill from the Victorian Ambulance Union said he couldn't confirm how many calls weren't attended to during that period.
"I don't have detail on that at the moment," he said.
"But a lot of that is starting to come through. Demand for ambulance resources at the moment has never been higher."
Hill said he's noticed an increase in 000 calls for "low acuity medical issues".
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Danny Hill from the Victorian Ambulance Union said an increasing amount of Australians are calling 000 in non-emergencies. Today
"It comes back to the strain across the system," he said.
"People can't get into to see GPs, they might not get the nursing care one would want them to have in the aged care facility, so they resort to 000.
"That is not what emergency services are meant to be for, they're for emergencies, not to be a one-stop-shop for all things related to someone's health."
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Ambulance Victoria put a code red in place on Tuesday morning. It lasted about four hours. 9News
A spokesperson told 9News the code red was driven by the fact "146 Ambulance Victoria staff were unable to work because of sickness through COVID-19 or caring for family or friends with the virus."
"The situation was able to be resolved, with services returning to normal within four hours," they added.
"We thank the community for helping us save Triple Zero (000) for emergencies."
Hill conceded the past three years has taken a toll on staff.
"They do incredibly hard work, but they are not superhuman," he said.
"The last three years has taken its toll on the ambulance workforce, the health workforce, and we see that play out in at times in quite high rates of sick leave.
"Leading to a large amount of dropped shifts and new introduction leads to zero ambulances being able to respond on Monday night."
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