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Report on Government Services 2019

Part E, Chapter 11

11 Ambulance services

The focus of performance reporting in this chapter is on ambulance service organisations, which are the primary agencies involved in providing emergency medical care, pre-hospital and out-of-hospital care, and transport services.

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  • Key Facts
  • Indicator Framework
  • Indicator Results

The focus of performance reporting in this chapter is on ambulance service organisations, which are the primary agencies involved in providing emergency medical care, pre-hospital and out-of-hospital care, and transport services.

Nationally in 2017-18:

  • there were 3.7 million incidents resulting in 4.6 million ambulance service responses to attend to 3.5 million patients
  • recurrent expenditure across Australia was approximately $3.6 billion (or $145 per person)
  • there were 17 883 full time equivalent paid personnel, 6654 volunteers and 3108 community first responders in ambulance service organisations. (Community first responders are trained volunteers that provide an emergency response (with no transport capacity) and first aid care before ambulance arrival.)

Ambulance services aim to promote health and reduce the adverse effects of emergency events on the community. Governments’ involvement in ambulance services is aimed at providing emergency medical care, pre-hospital and out-of-hospital care, and transport services that are:

  • accessible and timely
  • meet patients’ needs through delivery of appropriate health care
  • high quality — safe, co-ordinated and responsive health care
  • sustainable.

Governments aim for ambulance services to meet these objectives in an equitable and efficient manner.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of ambulance services. The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in the 2019 Report.

Indicator framework

An overview of the Ambulance services performance indicator results are presented. Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the indicator interpretation boxes in the Ambulance services chapter and attachment tables.

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Equity — Access indicators

Response times by geographic location

Ambulance response times, 90th percentile, 2017-18 (minutes)

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Capital city 20.8 16.1 17.8 14.1 18.0 20.0 14.7 19.6 ..
State-wide 23.2 19.1 17.3 14.8 19.9 29.4 14.7 21.0 ..
Source: Attachment table 11A.3

Effectiveness — Appropriateness — Clinical indicators

Pain management

Proportion of patients who reported a clinically meaningful pain reduction, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 84.4 84.0 86.3 85.2 74.1 84.9 89.0 64.8 83.9

Source: Attachment table 11A.5

Effectiveness — Quality — Responsiveness indicators

Patient satisfaction

Overall satisfaction rate, 2018

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 98 ± 5.0 98 ± 4.2 98 ± 5.1 98 ± 6.2 98 ± 6.1 98 ± 4.6 97 ± 5.0 92 ± 7.8 98 ± 1.9
Source: Attachment table 11A.6

Effectiveness — Sustainability indicators

Ambulance workforce

Most recent data for these measures are comparable and complete, subject to caveats

Operational workforce under 50 years of age, 2017-18

 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 73.8 78.5 79.5 75.7 74.2 77.8 75.9 83.3 76.9
Source: Attachment table 11A.7

Staff attrition rate, 2017-18

 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 2.6 2.2 2.4 4.2 2.4 3.4 3.3 13.4 2.7
Source: Attachment table 11A.7

Efficiency indicators

Ambulance services expenditure per person

Ambulance services expenditure per person, 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
$ 124.57 168.05 156.70 104.33 181.35 157.61 129.06 145.79 145.03
Source: Attachment table 11A.10

Outcome indicators

Cardiac arrest survived event rate

Adult cardiac arrest survival rate — where resuscitation attempted (excluding paramedic witnessed), 2017-18

Most recent data for this measure not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 25.5 26.6 28.8 20.5 21.8 32.2 35.2 10.9 25.4
Source: Attachment table 11A.11

Notes

These data and caveats for these data are available in chapter 11 and attachment 11A.

Some percentages reported for this indicator include 95 per cent confidence intervals (for example, 99 per cent ± 2.7 per cent).

na Not available.