Orange ambulance response times quicker than most in NSW

According to Bureau of Health Information statistics released this week, the median response time for life threatening cases in Orange for January to March this year was 8.1 minutes.

Life-threatening, or P1A cases, include cardiac or respiratory arrest or unconsciousness and ineffective breathing. Orange crews responded to 88 in the January-March reporting period.

The Orange response time was a minute longer than for the same period in 2021, but better than the state median of 8.8 minutes.

It was also an improvement on the October-December period of 9 minutes.

By comparison, Dubbo's median response time for life-threatening call outs was 7.4 minutes, or 0.6 of a minute longer than the same period in 2021 while Bathurst mirrored Orange.

Response time refers to the period between the triple-0 call until the ambulance arrives on scene.

Across the state only 60.2 per cent of life-threatening cases were attended to within a 10 minute target time, the worst result since BHI began reporting on figures in 2010.

While the lagging impact of COVID-19 on hospital staffing numbers is taking its toll, ambulance staff were being frustrated by an increasing number of non-urgent calls adding to their workload.

President of the Central West sub-branch of the ambulance division of the Health Service Union Craig Parsons asked for people to think before calling triple-0.

"What we say is trivial might not be trivial to the person at the time," he said.

"For them it's an emergency but it's an emergency where they could probably go to the chemist shop, or go to see their own doctor. There's no reason to call an ambulance and clog up the whole hospital system.

"The reason people do it I think is because it's easier to get into a hospital to see a doctor than it is to see your own doctor."

He said resources were also tied up with wild-goose chases looking for accidents reported by drivers who then left the scene.

Ambulances ramping is an issue in metropolitan hospitals and Mr Parson's said the west had experienced its share, but not to the extent of their Sydney counterparts.

"Hospitals are only so big with so many beds. If there's nowhere to offload a patient, if the ED's full then they have to wait," he said.

For emergency, or P1, cases the median response time in Orange was 13.7 minutes, two minutes longer than last year's January-March period but two minutes better than the NSW median.

Only 44.8 per cent of cases waited less than 15 minutes for an Orange ambulance to arrive which is down by 12.5 per cent.

P1 cases require an immediate response under lights and siren.

In the case of non-life threatening but urgent cases, the median wait for Orange patients was 18 minutes, a blow out of 3.3 minutes.

Orange ambulance crews had 3102 responses during the January to March quarter, 107 more than the same period on 2021and 189 more than in October-December.