Ambulances

Median emergency response time

The median time from when the phone number of the triple zero caller and the address of the incident are confirmed, to when the first ambulance arrives at the emergency incident.

In Tasmania, a call to 000 for an ambulance is dealt with by an emergency medical dispatcher. A time stamp is recorded when the emergency medical dispatcher confirms the phone number of the triple zero caller and the address of the incident. This time stamp is very early in the ambulance dispatch process and is a reasonable match with the national definition.

This measure applies only to emergency incidents. These are immediately life threatening incidents, for which on-road resources must mobilise as soon as possible and respond using emergency warning devices. Incidents attended by fixed or rotary wing response vehicles are excluded.

Number of incidents

The number of patient-related events.

Ambulance priority categories:

Emergency: An immediately life threatening incident. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as possible and respond using emergency warning devices.

Urgent: An incident which should have a clinician on scene within 60 minutes. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as possible but respond without using emergency warning devices.

Non-urgent: An incident requiring an ambulance resource to be available for transport at a specified time, e.g. meeting an aircraft for patient collection or transferring a patient between medical facilities. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as dispatched and respond without using emergency warning devices.

Number of dispatches

The number of ambulance resources dispatched to attend an incident.

Ambulance priority categories:

Emergency: An immediately life threatening incident. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as possible and respond using emergency warning devices.

Urgent: An incident which should have a clinician on scene within 60 minutes. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as possible but respond without using emergency warning devices.

Non-urgent: An incident requiring an ambulance resource to be available for transport at a specified time, e.g. meeting an aircraft for patient collection or transferring a patient between medical facilities. On-road resources must mobilise as soon as dispatched and respond without using emergency warning devices.

Secondary triage

Secondary triage provides alternate medical care pathways for patients who ring Triple Zero and are assessed as not requiring an emergency ambulance response.