By Callum Ludwig
With demand for ambulances surging, Ambulance Victoria (AV) called an Orange Escalation for the metropolitan region at 10pm on Tuesday 19 April.
An Orange Escalation is the second escalation procedure in AV’s Emergency Response Plan which indicates that demand or a particular incident is having a large impact on its ability to respond, alerting the whole health system that ambulance fleet availability is reduced.
“Ambulance Victoria and metropolitan hospitals experienced high demand last night and managed the demand through the standard escalation processes,” an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said.
“We again remind all community members to save Triple Zero for emergencies – this is to ensure the sickest Victorians receive life-saving care. ”
After the alert, AV undertakes actions such as calling in additional staff, referring low-urgency patients to other health services, taking steps to reduce blockages in other health services and may issue a public notice to urge the community to only call Triple Zero if urgent care is required.
Some claims on social media also prompted AV to clarify that police under no circumstances triage or transport patients.
