![Paramedics steadily swifter across city Paramedics steadily swifter across city](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBHRDThPr8rZ8LC4FzPP7b/94144f40-9a8f-436c-877f-d25a72e46ff1.jpg/r0_3_1200_678_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
PARAMEDICS are continuing to reach Ballarat patients faster the state's latest performance data shows.
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Ambulance are arriving at the most critical patients in 9.2 minutes, which has been a steady average time since July and a slight improvement on the same period, in the three months to March, last year. Almost 90 per cent of code one emergencies were attended within the 15-minute target.
Call-outs to the city's most urgent cases remained steady on the three months to end 2018 with 1502 calls in the first three months of this year.
At the same time last year, ambulances responded to almost 1300 of the most time-critical patients.
Statewide, the response to acute patients was the third highest since Ambulance Victoria's clinical reforms to help free up ambulances for emergencies.
Overall, paramedics in Ballarat arrive in an average 10 minutes and 15 seconds. This is a clear improvement on a 10:55 average a year ago. This is also faster than the state average ambulance arrival of 11:04 in the three months to the end of March.
Only 64 per cent of patients in Ballarat Health Services' emergency department are being seen within targeted times, down five percentage point for the same time a year earlier. But, Base Hospital staff maintain a 100 per cent rate for treating the most urgent patients in emergency immediately with 67 per cent of code two patients within 10 minutes.
The Base Hospital also continues to conduct more elective surgeries and reduce its elective surgery waiting list. More than half Ballarat's urgent elective patients were treated within 14 days, which is a day faster than the same period last year and clear within the 30-day state benchmark.
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