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www.wangarattachronicle.com.au
Monday, February 13, 2023
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FRESH START THOUSANDS of students and teachers in Wangaratta and district have been settling in to the school year over the past weeks. At Milawa Primary School, Bron Wright and Ash Campbell have begun new chapters, with Ash moving out of the principal’s chair to focus on his passion for teaching, and Bron stepping back in as principal. Full story page 10 PHOTO: Kurt Hickling
Hub opens in city
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Sam’s great honour
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Magpies’ outright victory Sport
Emergency spike Ambulance response p times decrease duringg increased demand from sicker patients p MORE than th 600 people l iin the Wangaratta area required ambulance responses for potentially life-threatening emergencies late last year, with new Ambulance Victoria figures revealing the strain on local paramedics was its highest in recent memory. Response time data released on Friday for the October to December quarter showed paramedics were re-
BY RYAN MALCOLM rmalcolm@ nemedia.com.au
quired at 606 code 1 emergencies throughout the Wangaratta Local Government Area (LGA), almost 100 more than the previous quarter. Despite the increase in callouts, response times
throughout the region th h t th i iimproved, with an average response time of 16.10 which saw paramedics on-scene within 15 minutes on 64.2 per cent of occasions. Both figures were improvements on state figures, which saw 60.2 per cent of responses occur within 15 minutes at an average of 16.44. Ambulance Victoria Hume
demand the iimpacts d d and d th t off COVID-19 on our lives, our dedicated paramedics in the Hume region continue to do an amazing job delivering world-class care to our patients.” Code 1 responses in Indigo Shire continued to be among the among the slowest in the state, with an average time of 25.20 and only 19.6 per cent of callouts reached within 15
regional director, Narelle i l di t N ll Capp, said ambulance responses across the region had been impacted by sicker patients and staff furloughs as a result of COVID-19. “Across the state, October to December was the busiest quarter in Ambulance Victoria's history with paramedics called to a record 110,234 code 1 cases,” she said. “In the face of this record
minutes, Alpine Shire i t while hil Al i Shi (44.8 per cent), Mansfield Shire (31.4 per cent) and Strathbogie Shire (28.3 per cent) all fell well below expectations. The rise in code 1 responses to sicker patients also saw the region’s major health service, Northeast Health Wangaratta (NHW) placed under additional stress. ■ Continued page 3
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