Victoria's beleaguered health system experienced record strain under the weight of the Omicron wave at the start of the year, fresh government data shows.
The Victorian Health Services Performance statistics show about one third of urgent code 1 ambulance patients waited more than the target time during the March quarter.
The number of call-outs surged during the same period, at a time when record numbers of paramedics were furloughed after being exposed to COVID-19.
The pressure was being felt across the state's hospital emergency departments, which treated nearly 2,000 more patients than the previous quarter while battling through staff shortages.
"What these figures tell us is that our hospital system, our ambulance system, continues to be under significant pressure from COVID-19," Health Minister Martin Foley said.
The figures cover January through to March, when the deadly Omicron wave took hold on the country.
"Whilst for most of us, life is starting to look like something approaching normal… that is certainly not the case when it comes to our hard-working healthcare and paramedic workforce," Mr Foley said.
"Not just here in Victoria, but indeed both nationally and indeed globally, our health systems continue to be under huge pressure."
COVID-related hospitalisations peaked at about 1,200 at the height of the Omicron wave, at a time when an average of 5,000 hospital workers and 500 paramedics were furloughed each day.
About 1,500 hospital and ambulance workers are now furloughed each day on average.
Busiest quarter in Ambulance Victoria's history
Ambulance Victoria responded to 93,234 code 1 incidents between January and March, a 14.2 per cent increase on a year earlier.
Code 1 cases represent urgent "lights and sirens" emergencies.
Ambulance Victoria Acting CEO Libby Murphy said the surge made the three-month period the "busiest in Ambulance Victoria's history".
Paramedics responded to 66.8 per cent of those calls within the 15-minute target set by the state.
That figure is a slight improvement from the previous quarter, when 66 per cent of patients were met within that window.
The increased demand came at a time the state's triple-0 system was already in crisis.
A dozen Victorians have died while waiting for an ambulance since October last year and there are two reviews underway into the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA).
Mr Foley said the wait times faced by up to a third of code 1 callers was "because of the demands on the system, be they the high levels of staff being furloughed, because of the arrangements in place when it comes to infection prevention and control, and through the sheer number of cases that they are responding to".
Ambulance Victoria's Ms Murphy said it was responding to the demand through the recruitment of 700 new paramedics in 2021 and another 120 this year.
Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the wait times were due to a combination of factors, including COVID-19 restrictions lifting and people calling triple-0 for matters that were not urgent.
Ramping at hospitals due to crowded emergency departments remained a "huge factor" in delays, he said.
"And any time we have issues in the entire health system, the flow-on effect is that people don't get ambulances in time."
Surgery waitlists continue to blow out
There were 463,000 patients treated in Victorian hospital emergency departments in the March quarter, which Mr Foley said was up by 1,900 on the previous months.
For much of that time, a Code Brown declaration was in place across much of the state's hospitals.
The declaration allowed for staff leave to be cancelled and elective surgeries to be deferred until after it lifted in mid-February.
About 27,700 elective surgeries were still completed, about 6 per cent less than the previous quarter.
But 89,611 Victorians are still on the waitlist for elective surgery, including about 2,700 of the most urgent category 1 patients.
That's a dramatic increase on the 65,251 people waiting a year earlier — which was a record at the time.
"Despite the significant pressures that our paramedics and our healthcare workers continued to deliver care to the most seriously unwell in really challenging circumstances," Mr Foley said.
Glenn McQuade was told in July 2021 that he needed a further surgery for a lifelong degenerative disease affecting his hip.
It was considered category two surgery and should have been done in 90 days, but was cancelled in August due to COVID restrictions.
"I was able to walk normally but if I was at work, I wouldn't be able to sustain an eight-hour shift," Mr McQuade said.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital patient services worker has only just recently had the procedure after taking time off work and being on strong painkillers while waiting an extra eight months for surgery.
"I was disheartened but I understood the situation due to my background in health."
He's now looking forward to taking a trip to the Kimberleys, which has booked for two years.
"The way I'm feeling and subject to getting the surgeon's approval, I would be able to get off the one crutch and be able to walk around independently."
Mr Foley apologised to people waiting for surgery and said the state was working to bring wait times down.
The Austin Hospital saw a record number of presentations to its emergency department in March.
The health service's chief executive, Adam Horsburgh, said it put immense pressure on the system, which was still being hit by staff shortages.
"So in that context, both the staff at the Austin Health and everyone across the whole system really do deserve our respect and admiration for their ongoing tireless efforts and hard work," Mr Horsburgh said.
Government's 'catch-up' program
Opposition MP Matthew Bach said the waitlist was "89,000 too many".
"So I'd say this: The Andrews Labor government got us into this mess, they're not the right people to get us out of it."
The state government announced a $1.5 billion "COVID Catch-Up" package at the start of the month aimed at responding to the ballooning surgery backlog.
Under the plan, the Frankston Private Hospital will be transformed into a public surgery centre with capacity to deliver up to 9,000 public surgeries per year.
Meanwhile, $475 million will be invested in the public system to support more same-day surgeries, increase twilight and after-hours work and theatre improvements.
The government is setting up eight rapid access hubs across metropolitan public hospitals, which are due to be operational by next year.
Mr Foley on Saturday confirmed University Hospital Geelong would be the eighth hub.
The government has appointed Royal Melbourne Hospital's director of surgical services, Ben Thomson, as Chief Surgical Adviser to the state as part of the scheme.
Mr Foley urged Victorians to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and influenza in a bid to keep the hospital system free for people who needed it most.
