Speaking at Victoria’s public accounts and estimates committee on Friday,Department of Health secretary Euan Wallace confirmed the number of “sentinel events” reported by Ambulance Victoria and investigated by officials.
These are defined as incidents where a patient has called an ambulance,but one was not available in time.
Wallace said 10 of these incidents were recorded in the 2020-21 financial year and another 10 in 2021-22. In all of these cases,the people died.
Data for sentinel events in the 2022-23 financial year has not been released.
When asked how many patients had been left waiting for help,Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jane Miller said this was best represented by the agency’s response times.
In 2022-23,paramedics made it to 62.8 per cent of urgent Code 1 call-outs within 15 minutes – below the target of 85 per cent. In 2021-22,paramedics responded to 67.5 per cent of call-outs in time.