Vic govt to improve ambulance response times

The Victorian government has promised better ambulance response times but the union has no confidence the situation will improve.
Health Minister David Davis made the pledge on Wednesday, denying the government's move to halve Ambulance Victoria membership fees would slow ambulance response times.
"We are confident that the response times will inherently, steadily, improve," he told parliament during a budget estimates hearing.
"We will do much, much better than the previous government."
He said the previous Labor government never met its ambulance response time targets.
Figures released earlier this month showed response times for the most urgent patients are getting worse.
Almost every metropolitan branch in the first seven months of this financial year recorded rising response times for code one calls, with the worst results in Kinglake, Healesville and Whittlesea.
Ambulance response times worsened in about half of the branches in country Victoria.
In 2007/08, a 15-minute target was set for ambulances to respond to code one emergencies in 85 per cent of cases across the state and 90 per cent in regional centres of more than 7500 people.
Ambulance Victoria spokesman James Howe said there had been a modest improvement in response times since December.
Ambulance Employees Association of Victoria general secretary Steve McGhie said the emergency caseload for the ambulance service has grown about six to eight per cent annually over the past decade.
He said the reduction in ambulance membership fees will further increase demand on the service.
"I just can't see that there will be enough ambulance resources across the state to reduce response times at all," Mr McGhie said.
The coalition has allocated $241.9 million to halve ambulance membership fees and $151 million to employ 310 extra paramedics over the next five years.
Mr Howe said it was a promising time for Ambulance Victoria, given the coalition's commitments in the budget.
Outside the hearing, opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings said Mr Davis did not demonstrate how any of the coalition's spending on the ambulance service would shorten response times.