New insights from Ambulance Victoria (AV) shows minor improvements in response times from first responders and turnaround durations in Casey, with an average response time of 15 minutes 21 seconds for life threatening incidents (Code 1).
The latest Q2 (October – December 2025) performance data shows that Casey responded to just over 64 per cent of Code 1 emergencies within 15 minutes — up last quarter from 61.7 per cent but still falling short of state-wide targets.
AV’s response time targets aim to reach Code 1 incidents within 15 minutes for 85 per cent of cases state-wide.
And 90 per cent of cases in areas where population is greater than 7500.
Average Code 1 response times were recorded to be 36 seconds faster in the Casey Local Government Area in comparison to the previous quarter.
Between October and December 2025, Casey reported to have had the highest workload in the state, responding to 5186 severely urgent cases — making up more than 5 per cent of the total workload — followed by Hume, Whittlesea and Wynham.
Neighbouring LGAs like Cardinia responded to 53.4 per cent of Code 1 cases within the 15 minutes target, with an average response time of 17.25 out of 1671 responses.
While the Greater Dandenong LGA, responded to 67.9 per cent of Code 1 incidents within 15 minutes, with an average response time of 15.15 out of 2408 responses.
Comparing Casey’s Code 1 performance over the last four quarters, the region has largely had an average response time of 15-16 minutes with the number of cases seeing a spike in the last two quarters.
According to AV, the slight improvements across the state can be attributed to the recent introduction of the Standards for Safe and Timely Ambulance and Emergency Care, also known as the Standards which works to improve handover times across the state.
According to AV, the Standard has helped to reduce clearing times, which is the duration it takes for AV crews to complete a patient handover and attend another.
Between January and March 2025, average clearing times in the metropolitan region dropped from 33 minutes to 30 minutes and 2 seconds between October and December — improvements falling in line with the rest of the state.
AV’s director Vanessa Gorman, said that last year, clearing times dropped by nearly three minutes.
“Every small improvement – from more efficient hospital handovers to quicker clearing times – adds up to better care for all Victorians,” Ms Gorman said.
Casey Code 2 response times — incidents that are acute and time sensitive, but do not require lights and sirens — has also had a reduction of 3 minutes and 33 seconds, with the average response time being 41 minutes and 58 seconds in comparison to Q1’s response time of 44 minutes and 33 seconds.
Overall in Victoria, during the October to December quarter across Victoria, AV crews responded to 65.1 per cent of Code 1 cases within the state-wide target of 15 minutes – up slightly from 64.1 per cent in the previous 2024/25 quarter.
The state-wide average response time to Code 1 emergencies was 15 minutes and 40 seconds – six seconds faster than the previous quarter.
