AMBULANCE services across the Hunter have been swamped by the highest number of calls in five years, new data shows.
The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) report shows NSW Ambulance had one of its busiest quarters on record between January and March, 2022.
The data shows that in the Hunter area, this was felt most acutely in Maitland, Port Stephens, and Lake Macquarie (West).
The number of ambulance calls in Maitland rose by almost 20 per cent compared to the same time last year, and response times for "P1 emergencies" - which paramedics aim to attend within 15 minutes - were the slowest since 2010. In Newcastle, the number of calls were up by 7.3 per cent on the same time last year - the highest in five years, and the number of P1 emergencies attended within 15 minutes dropped below 50 per cent.
But in Port Stephens, the percentage of ambulances arriving to P1 emergencies within that 15-minute benchmark dropped to 28 per cent - the lowest it has been since the BHI started recording the data in 2010. Response times have blown out from 13 minutes in 2010 to 19 minutes in 2022.
It was similar in Lake Macquarie (West), where calls were up by 12.4 per cent, and just 28.8 per cent of ambulance arrivals met the benchmark for P1 emergencies.
Chris Kastelan, the Australian Paramedics Association NSW president, said the data showed that current strategies weren't working, and bottlenecks at the state's emergency departments needed to be addressed.
"The emergency department data has identified one of the reasons the numbers are heading in the wrong direction - the bed block we are seeing," Mr Kastelan said. "The stakes are very high in Triple Zero emergency cases, where every minute counts."
A survey of APA NSW's 2500 members revealed nine-out-of-10 paramedics believe patients are suffering adverse events due to ambulance under-resourcing and delayed response times.
"It's upsetting for a paramedic to have to make excuses for a system that is slowly but surely providing ongoing delays," he said. "People don't want to be left waiting excessive periods of time when they've called Triple Zero for a life-threatening emergency... People want to know that an ambulance is reasonably close and can come to them in a time frame that is appropriate."
NSW Ambulance said the high demand was largely driven by the Omicron wave of COVID-19, as well as the return of the normal paramedic workload in the community - car accidents, assaults, and falls. The service will recruit 2,128 new staff and open 30 more stations over the next four years.
