02 Feb 2018 Wangaratta Chronicle, Wangaratta VIC (General News) Patients are the winners AMBULANCE response times for Wangaratta improved in the three months to the end of December with 78.6 per cent of Code One emergencies now arriving in 11:57 minutes. That compares to the same time last year where 73.4 per cent arrived in 13:53minutes. Jaclyn Symes (MLC, Northern Victoria) released the Victorian Health Services and Ambulance Victoria Performance Data yesterday at Benalla along with elective surgery data for the same period which showed increases in surgery admissions to Northeast Health Wangaratta (NHW). These strong results from our hospitals and ambulance service are more than just numbers they represent more lives saved and people getting the care they need faster, Ms Symes said Wangarattas ambulance response times compared favourably with Benalla (66.5 per cent within 13.55 minutes for Code One emergencies) but behind Wodonga (89 per cent of Code One emergencies arriving in 10:08 minutes). Statewide, 81.4 per cent of Code 1 ambulances arrived within 15 minutes of call-out, compared to 76 per cent a year earlier. Ms Symes said a Productivity Commission Report released this week showed that Victoria is the only state in Australia to improve ambulance response times over the past year. Surgery admissions locally were equally as impressive. In the three month period NHW: admitted 4785 patients -up from 4662 admissions in the same period a year earlier; admitted I860 emergency patients up from 1834 emergency admissions a year earlier; provided a total of 12,524 bed-days to patients up from 11,531 bed-days a year earlier. saw 6564 patients who pre sented to the emergency department up from 6300 presentations in the previous quarter; treated 100 per cent of Category 1 emergency patients immediately on arrival at the hospital ED; completed the transfer of 87.4 per cent of patients who arrived at the hospital in an ambulance within the target of 40 minutes, up on its 86.6 per cent transfer rate in the previous three months; reduced patients on the elective surgery waiting list -from 713 at the end of the December 2016 quarter to 681 at the end of this December; provided elective surgery to 100 per cent of Category 1 urgent patients within the benchmark 30 days; and treated half of the hospitals Category 1 elective surgery patients within 12 days better than the 14-day median in the September quarter, and well under the 30-day benchmark.Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.