Page 488 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017
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in their community and having a high degree of satisfaction with the quality of our
police services. This includes very positive community perceptions of safety both at home and in public places, with all categories scoring above the Australian average. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the diligent efforts of Canberra’s paramedics, firefighters and police in delivering such a great result for the ACT community highlighted in this report.
It is important to note that these efforts are not made, of course, in isolation. This government acknowledges and very much appreciates the sacrifices made by our first responders and their families to serve our community. I congratulate every member of the ACT Ambulance Service, ACT Fire & Rescue and ACT Policing for their continued dedication to keeping the community safe. The results are a credit to the professionalism of the women and men in these services. The ACT government is committed to supporting our emergency services and police now and into the future.
MS CHEYNE: Minister, can you please provide further information to the Assembly on our ambulance and Fire & Rescue response times?
MR GENTLEMAN: As part of the ACT Emergency Services Agency, the Ambulance Service and Fire & Rescue service perform a vital role in responding to emergencies and providing a high level of care to people in the community. The ACT recorded the best response times in the county for ambulance and firefighting personnel, despite, as I said, demand for these essential services continuing to increase.
The ACT Ambulance Service has recorded the best response times in the country for the fifth year in a row. The ACTAS state-wide and capital city response times are in the 90th percentile and are the best in the country at 13.7 minutes. I note these results have been achieved while also maintaining an impressive 98 per cent result in the annual ambulance patient satisfaction survey.
The success of our emergency services continues with ACT Fire & Rescue service. I am pleased to report that the ACT Fire & Rescue service had the best major city and state-wide structure fire response times in the country at 10.2 minutes and measured in the 90th percentile.
The government is proud of the work of the men and women of our emergency services and thanks all the staff for their professionalism in working tirelessly to deliver services around the clock. The government is committed to making our community safer. This was confirmed by the funding increases in the last budget for emergency services. The government is committed to protecting the people who protect us by giving our emergency services personnel the resources they need to do their job and look after the people we care about.
MRS JONES: Minister, according to the same report, why have ambulance response times increased by one minute since the previous report?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mrs Jones for her question. It is in relation to the growth of services across the territory. We are looking at resourcing ACTAS as best we can to adjust to that growth right across the territory.
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