Seymour's Tony Hubbard has called on community members to have their voices heard and get behind a push for improved ambulance resources in Seymour.
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Mr Hubbard was joined by State Member for Northern Victoria Tania Maxwell at a community forum on Thursday to hear from locals and launch a petition for better ambulance resources.
More than 350 signatures were collected in the first 24 hours of the petition going live.
“The petition calls for equitable services to respond to the health needs of regional Victorians, regardless of where they live,” Mr Hubbard said.
“There are four ambulances at Seymour station, but only one crew is rostered on overnight.
“There is also no on-call service in cases where the Seymour crew are deployed to another area, including Melbourne.
“The impact of this practice leaves residents vulnerable and without an available ambulance response within the 15-minute code one response target.
“The petition requests the Legislative Council call on the government to restore on-call ambulance services in Seymour, in addition to their current resourcing.”
The push comes after the death of Mr Hubbard’s wife of 55 years, due to what he says was a slow ambulance response time.
Mr Hubbard believes his wife would still be alive if an ambulance had not taken more than 45 minutes to arrive at his house.
Mr Hubbard’s wife unexpectedly stopped breathing at their Foley Pl home on October 7 last year. He immediately called 000 and began CPR while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
After five minutes of CPR Mr Hubbard’s wife began breathing and talking, but after another 20 minutes, she again stopped breathing.
Mr Hubbard said he continued CPR while ambulances came from Yea and Nagambie and if he knew it would take so long, he would have taken his wife to hospital himself.
“I want to be clear that this is not a slight on the fantastic work of our local paramedics,” Mr Hubbard said.
“They do amazing work in our towns every day, but they can only play with the hand they’re dealt.
“This is aimed at the people at the top making the resourcing decisions. The people of Seymour and every other country town in Victoria deserve the same level of care as people in Melbourne.”
Ms Maxwell said she was keen to push forward with the issue as a “very serious lack of resourcing was failing members of many communities”.
“I don’t think having an ambulance leaving Seymour and making the community vulnerable is acceptable,” she said.
“We need to be confident that when we need an ambulance, it is not far away. A response time of 40 or 50 minutes is not acceptable.
“If an ambulance has gone somewhere else, there should be more trained paramedics available. This is not something we should be cutting costs on.”
Ms Maxwell also expressed concerns about the GoodSAM program and the dialogue used by 000 call centres.
The GoodSAM program is a mobile phone app that alerts people, via the 000 call centre, when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest so they can start CPR while paramedics are on the way.
“The GoodSAM program is a great idea but does that mean we are going to be expecting community members to be responding when it should be fully trained paramedics?” she said.
“If someone can get there with a defibrillator and save someone’s life, that is fantastic, but it should not become the norm.
“We are also concerned about the response of “the ambulance is on its way” from call centres.
“People don’t want to know it’s on the way, they want to know how long it will take to be at their doorstep so they can decide if they should go to the hospital instead of waiting. There are so many apps that can track you, why can’t we have that for an ambulance?
“Ambulance Victoria will say they don’t want people transporting themselves to the hospital, but in some cases you have to make your own decision.”
Mr Hubbard thanked Ms Maxwell and the community for their support and said he would not be backing down until ambulance resourcing in Seymour was improved.
“Lives are at risk and I’m going to keep this in the media and keep campaigning for Ambulance Victoria to do something,” he said.
“I don’t want another life lost because our paramedics were not given the resources to do their jobs.
“Please sign the petition and help me to avoid this issue being swept under the carpet.”
Ambulance Victoria Hume regional director Matt Chadban said Victoria had one of the best cardiac survival rates in the world and that was not by accident.
“It’s because we have more people across our state who are on our GoodSAM app who know CPR and how to use a defibrillator,” he said.
“When seconds count in a cardiac arrest, it is internationally proven that bystander intervention makes the difference between life and death.
“Time and time again, we hear stories of a neighbour, friend, family member knowing what to do when someone goes into cardiac arrest.
“While bystander invention alone will never replace an ambulance service, equipping people with lifesaving skills to start the chain of survival saves lives.
“This is why, despite receiving 6000 cardiac arrest call-outs last year – the largest number on record - nine out of 10 Victorians went home to their families.”
In a statement, the Victorian Government said Mitchell Shire ambulances were arriving at the scene of emergencies in an average 13 minutes and 39 seconds.
“That is more than six minutes faster than during the height of the ambulance crisis left by the Liberal Nationals. The Seymour 1mbulance station operates 24/7,” the statement said.
“The Andrews Labor Government has delivered $1 billion to improve ambulance response times, employ hundreds more paramedics, buy new vehicles and build more stations across the state. This includes a $299 million boost in Victorian budget 2019-20.”
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said she was aware there were still times when ambulances did not arrive as fast as the government would like.
“Our thoughts are with Ms Hubbard’s family and friends to who we offer our sincere condolences,” she said.
“While Ambulance Victoria did everything they could, we will continue working with local communities to ensure ambulances are arriving even sooner.”
The petition is available until August 11. Copies have been distributed to various businesses and community groups in Seymour for people to sign.
A digital version can also be signed at parliament.vic.gov.au/council/petitions/electronic-petitions/view-e-petitions/details/12/177
For information about where to sign the petition, phone Mr Hubbard on 0411 670 914.
Journalist