Speaking in Parliament this week, The Nationals’ Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, has raised the need for specialised Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) units across the southern Hume region.
MICA paramedics have a higher clinical skill set due to more intensive training and can perform more advanced medical procedures, however there are none currently in operation for much of the region.
Ms Cleeland made the request to the Minister for Ambulance Services, saying that areas like the Mitchell Shire were left at a disadvantage due to their lack of these units.
“The Mitchell Shire, one of the fastest growing parts of our state, does not have a MICA unit to cover a population of more than 50,000 people,” Ms Cleeland said.
“A recent incident at a Coles supermarket carpark in Seymour required a MICA air-unit from Essendon because there were no local options available – leaving the patient at risk for an extended period of time.
“Similarly, local paramedics told me that a clinical manager was called back for a paediatric resuscitation because she was the only one qualified in the entire Mitchell LGA for specialist cases.
“On their own, this specialist paramedic is already covering an area from Wallan to Seymour, then out to Alexandra.
“This is completely unacceptable. People suffering from serious medical incidents should not be put at greater risk because the Minister has failed to allocate enough resources to our communities.”
The need for MICA units comes as ambulance wait times continue to blow out across the electorate, and ramping issues continue across the region’s major hospitals.
The most recent Ambulance Victoria data indicates alarming shortcomings when it comes to response times for code 1 emergencies across the region (the most serious and urgent cases).
Ambulance Victoria’s official response time targets are that 85 per cent of code 1 emergencies are responded to within 15 minutes.
However, in Benalla just 63.9 per cent of ambulances responded within this time, in Mitchell Shire it was just 55.5 per cent, and in the Strathbogie Shire just 32.7 per cent of ambulances arrived within the 15-minute target.
“Labor cannot manage our ambulance system and our paramedics and those in need of urgent medical help are the ones paying the ultimate price.”
