New data released by the Victorian government yesterday showed the average ambulance response time to an emergency in Wodonga was 10.08 minutes.

That gave the Border city the second fastest response time in regional Victoria, only behind Warrnambool on 9.39 minutes.

The figures cover October to December last year, with Wodonga’s response time for the previous quarter 11.20 minutes.

There was also an improvement in Wangaratta with a fall from 12.39 to 11.57 minutes.

Drops were also recorded in the Alpine, Indigo, Moira and Towong council areas, while Benalla had a five-second rise.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy attributed the falls to a greater investment in the ambulance service.

“Our reforms ensure that ambulances are able to focus on prioritising the Code 1 callouts and get the most ill and injured patients to hospital more quickly,” she said.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy welcomed the improvements but queried the presentation of the statistics.

“There's still some questions about whether the government is comparing apples with apples, given that they've changed part of the data and how the figures are collected,” he said.

“Having said that, if more people are coming to hospital in a quicker time then that's a good thing.”

New hospital data for October to December showed hospital admissions in Albury rising from 3861 to 4013, but falling from 5388 to 5297 in Wodonga.

The median waiting time for treatment in the Wodonga emergency department was 13 minutes (down from 14), with Albury data unavailable.

There were 8266 patients treated in Albury’s accident and emergency from October to December, compared to 6896 in Wodonga.

Elective surgery in Wodonga is done within an acceptable time in 89.9 per cent of cases, below the Victorian target of 94.