Ambulance Victoria 2018-2019 Annual Report 2 AMBULANCE VICTORIA 2018 - 2019 Annual Report Contents Our Charter 4 Chair’s Report 5 Chief Executive Officer’s Report 6 Report of Operations 13 Staff Numbers 20 Research Report 21 Environmental Report 26 Environmental Performance 27 Donations Summary 28 Governance 30 Management Structure 33 Board Members 34 Community Advisory Committee 36 Meetings 38 The Executive 39 Statement of Priorities 40 Performance Priorities 48 Statistical Summary 2018-2019 50 Statutory Compliance 59 Consultancies 61 ICT Expenditure 62 Health, Safety and Wellbeing 63 Occupational Violence Statistics 63 Alcohol and Other Drugs testing 64 Financial Overview 2018-2019 65 Financial Report for the Year Ending 30 June 2019 68 Disclosure Index 103 2018 - 2019 Annual Report AMBULANCE VICTORIA 3 Our Charter Ambulance Victoria (AV) aims to improve the health of the community by providing high quality pre-hospital care and medical transport. AV provides emergency medical response to more than six million people in an area of more than 227,000 square kilometres. AV is required by the Ambulance Services Act 1986 to: • respond rapidly to requests for help in pre-hospital medical emergencies • provide specialised medical skills to maintain life and to reduce injuries in emergency situations and while transporting patients • provide specialised transport facilities to move people requiring emergency medical treatment • provide services for which specialised medical or transport skills are necessary • foster continuous improvement in the quality and safety of the care and services it provides • foster public education in first aid. AV was established on 1 July 2008 following the merger of the Metropolitan Ambulance Service, Rural Ambulance Victoria and the Alexandra and District Ambulance Service. The AV website at www.ambulance.vic.gov.au contains information about AV and is regularly updated with the latest in statistics, developments and media releases. AV retains items, which are available to the relevant Ministers, Members of Parliament and to the public on request. 4 AMBULANCE VICTORIA 2018 - 2019 Annual Report Chair’s Report Ambulance Victoria continues to The Board also relished the chance to get closer to work towards building a modern, key community groups during the year, holding Board high-performing and community- meetings in two of our key regional hubs, Ballarat and centred healthcare service. Geelong. These meetings provided a great opportunity to engage as a Board with local healthcare groups, regional The change agenda of our five-year Ambulance Victoria staff and community leaders. Strategic Plan is on track and is readying our organisation for the During the year we have driven some important pieces challenges of increasing demand, growing community of work to make us a more modern, progressive and expectations and emerging technologies. inclusive organisation, of which all Victorians can be rightly proud. These include our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, The results of this work are increasingly evident. Amid our Accessibility Action Plan and our continued efforts an environment of rising demand and patient complexity, to support and promote better mental health among our Ambulance Victoria improved its response time people. performance in 2018–2019 and met or exceeded patient care targets. We are committed to becoming a more socially responsible and sustainable service and are preparing our first Social In addition to an outstanding operational performance, and Environmental Responsibility Action Plan. The Board we improved how we care for our patients, engage with has been proud to lead the development of this plan, our communities and look after our people. Throughout which outlines initiatives over the next five years. The the year, the Board stayed connected to these important plan outlines priority activities centred on our People, initiatives through face-to-face briefings, visiting branches Community, Environment and Supply Chain, with our key across the state and engaging with local communities. focus in Year One being our environmental footprint and It has been gratifying to witness the level of passion and climate change adaptation and mitigation. pride our key stakeholders have for their ambulance service. I would like to thank our Board members for their dedication and wise counsel over the past year. In Our improved patient care is due, in large part, to our Best particular, I’d like to recognise the contribution of retiring Care framework, which embodies our commitment to Board Director Suzanne Evans, who has served with improving patient care and outcomes. Over the past year distinction. I also extend a warm welcome to new Board we have embedded this framework, giving us a common Director Anna Leibel. language to help drive improvements in quality and safety. We are all connected to the patient experience through I thank the Ambulance Victoria Executive team for a year a robust clinical governance structure, new scorecard of strong progress and achievement and recognise the reporting and more streamlined patient feedback leadership of CEO, Associate Professor Tony Walker, who mechanisms. has been reappointed as CEO for a further five years. We continue our work to deepen connections with the I am confident that Ambulance Victoria is well placed community and ensure they are true co-designers of our to deliver more for our patients, our people and our ambulance service. Throughout the year we consulted community in the coming year and beyond. with communities and health partners across the state to develop local healthcare solutions and drive improved health outcomes. Our Community Advisory Committee has been instrumental in devising this approach and it continues to give the Board vital insights, keeping the community perspective front-and-centre in our strategic decision-making. Ken Lay AO APM Chair, Ambulance Victoria 2018 - 2019 Annual Report AMBULANCE VICTORIA 5 Chief Executive Officer’s Report In 2018–2019, we continued to Patient care focus invest in our people, systems and Every year, the health needs and expectations of our processes to keep our commitment patients grow, and we constantly strive to find new and to deliver outstanding emergency innovative ways to improve patient care. This year we healthcare every time for all further embedded our Best Care framework across our Victorians. organisation, undertaking a range of activities to build We have delivered the best Code 1 a Best Care culture that puts the patient at the heart of (lights and sirens) response times in Ambulance Victoria's everything we do. We worked with our Community Advisory history, reaching 83.9 percent of patients within 15 minutes Committee to develop our Patient Charter, which supports - up from 81.8 percent in the previous year. This improved our Patient Care Commitment and sets out the rights and response came in the face of a 4.4 per cent increase in responsibilities of the patients we treat. emergency caseload. During the year we met or exceeded our key patient care We put in place programs to drive improved response time measures, such as reducing patient pain and ensuring performance and patient outcomes, giving the community those with stroke or trauma are correctly identified and even greater confidence in their ambulance service. taken to the most appropriate hospital. For patients in cardiac arrest, 33.8 per cent with a shockable rhythm We invested in more staff, new branches and an expanded survived to hospital discharge, an improved performance community response. And in the years ahead, with on the previous year. increasing demand and rising patient complexity and care expectations, we are planning for the skills, technologies Our patients again gave us positive feedback in our and innovation that will serve our Victorian communities. annual patient survey, with 97 per cent rating their overall experience as good or very good. Committed to performance excellence Community partnerships We continued to make strong progress against our five- year Strategic Plan to build a modern and sustainable We understand that we can only deliver the best outcomes ambulance service. for our patients through collaboration with key stakeholders such as other specialist health services, our emergency In 2018–2019, we completed the recruitment of 450 management colleagues and local communities. additional paramedics, which was the cornerstone of the Government’s $500 million investment in Victoria’s Our Better Together program continued to build deeper ambulance service. links between communities and their local ambulance leaders, giving these communities a voice and helping We invested in our technology and data analytics capability, us better ensure our service is meeting local community giving our frontline managers more meaningful insights to needs. help them improve local performance and deliver a better ambulance service for their community. The past year has seen us prepare our first Accessibility Action Plan, which will help us better understand and Our revised Clinical Response Model, now in its second full meet the needs of those living with disability. We consulted year of operation, ensures all patients get the right care extensively to develop the plan, gaining valuable input at the right time for their clinical need, whether this is an from people with disability, their carers, support workers emergency ambulance, a patient transport response, or a and government representatives. Their