THE Victorian opposition is pushing for emergency service response times to be released quarterly.
STATE Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews says his party will introduce legislation to stop the government from trying to hide the crisis in the fire and ambulance services.
Mr Andrews says response time data for Ambulance Victoria and the Country Fire Authority has been refused under Freedom of Information requests, when it used to be released under that process. “Instead of fixing the crisis in our health system, (Premier) Denis Napthine spends taxpayers’ money on high-price lawyers to deny that a crisis even exists,” Mr Andrews said on Wednesday. Under the new laws, CFA and MFB branch response times would be released quarterly, as would Ambulance Victoria average response times. Health services and denominational hospitals would also release projected performance targets for the current financial year. “Victorians deserve the right to know the truth about the hospitals, ambulances and fire services that they rely on each day,” Mr Andrews said on Wednesday. It comes after the death last month of three-year-old Emmy Boyle, who was found underwater in the bath in her Gowanbrae home. Ambulance Victoria says the call about a drowning child was mistakenly put at a lower priority than it should have been, so the nearest ambulance wasn’t sent immediately.