Heatwave Emergency Services Tribute

The extreme heat across the state last week showcased Victoria's ability to respond in an emergency. I want to use this opportunity to pay particular tribute to our emergency services - our ambulance paramedics, fire first responders and front-line hospital staff who performed over and above what is expected of them. They delivered for the people of Victoria. Since last Tuesday the impact of the heat resulted in a 20 per cent increase in ambulance priority dispatch cases. To meet this increased activity -- and based on the knowledge of the last major heat health event of 2009 -- considerable planning was in place well before the heat arrived. Ambulance Victoria was able to increase resources to ensure all priority one and priority zero cases were attended to throughout the heat wave. Our hospitals, too, were superb in dealing with the additional case load. One of the key reasons for the excellent frontline response was because of the back room planning and coordination between a number of our key agencies. For the first time there was a fully integrated response between Ambulance Victoria, the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services and our hospitals. Ambulance, Health and Human Services were all co-located in one emergency management control room with direct links into the health system. I am very thankful for what I have been able to witness first-hand during this extreme event. All praise must go to our emergency personnel who contributed to putting the health and safety of their fellow Victorians as their number one priority at a time of extraordinary demand.