Ambulance response times blow out in Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange as Australian Paramedics Association continues to call for more paramedics

Emergency ambulance response times across Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange blew out to record levels in the September quarter, and are up by an average of three minutes compared to five years ago, Bureau of Health Information data released on Wednesday shows.

The increased response times are putting patient's lives at risk, says the Australian Paramedics Association (APA), which continues to call for more paramedics and ambulances on the road to keep up with workloads.

The data shows the median time for an ambulance to reach an emergency case in Bathurst in the September quarter was 12.5 minutes, 1.9 minutes longer than the same time last year.

In Dubbo, the response time was 12.7 minutes, up 2.6 minutes on last year

In Orange, ambulances took 12.8 minutes to reach emergency patients, an increase of 1.9 minutes.

Longer response times came as ambulances responded to almost 30 per cent more emergencies in Bathurst and Dubbo over the quarter, with 1029 and 2000 P1 responses respectively.

P1As, the highest priority emergency responses, also rose significantly for the quarter across all three cities, with a 217 per cent surge in P1A responses in Bathurst, a 64 per cent increase in Dubbo and a 57 per cent increase in Orange.

"There's just not enough crews to cover the workload, not only in our area but across the state," said APA Vice President Scott Beaton.

Mr Beaton said in a medical emergency, a minute could make a "huge difference" to a patient and their long term health outcomes.

"If their heart or their brain isn't getting enough oxygen that can have a detrimental effect to the patient in the long term. Especially in the case of a stroke, or a heart attack, the extra time that it takes for an ambulance can be life-changing for those people.

"The fact is we need more ambulances on the road. And that's an increase of about 1500 paramedics to get to the same level of paramedics per capita that other states around Australia have."

NSW Ambulance says the Delta outbreak had driven demand for ambulances.

Acting Chief Executive David Dutton said it was "one of the most challenging quarters for our call takers, clinicians, patients, and the community."

He said there were a variety of factors outside of NSW Ambulance's control that contribute to response times, including geography, traffic and population density.

"During the pandemic, response times have also been impacted by the increased use of Personal Protective Equipment by our paramedics. Adding to this has been the increased length of cases due to more thorough infection control procedures to keep paramedics, their patients and the wider community safe."

He said an additional 210 paramedics were deployed between July and September along with extra call takers, more ambulances and a surge helicopter to facilitate hospital to hospital transfers in regional communities.

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