Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes commits to releasing triple-0 crisis report before election day

The highly awaited report into the state’s besieged triple-0 service will be released before the state election.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes has committed to releasing a highly awaited report into the state’s besieged triple-0 service before the state election.

Ms Symes confirmed on Tuesday the Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM) — Tony Pearce — had finalised his report, which had been received by the government.

The IGEM report probes the experience of call taking agency ESTA and Victoria’s emergency service providers during the pandemic.

Ms Symes said it was her intention to release the “very thorough report” in full, confirming it will “absolutely” be made public well before November 26.

“It is not my intention to sit on this a minute longer than I have to,” she said.

“I want to make this report public as soon as possible. I’ve only had it for just over a week. I’ve got to go through some proper processes.”

The Andrews government was criticised over the timing of its release of the most recent review into ESTA, which was dropped to the media just days before the federal election in May.

Jaclyn Symes, pictured with Daniel Andrews, has committed to releasing a report into the state’s besieged triple-0 service before the state election. Picture: David Crosling

Ms Symes said that criticism was “really unfair”, adding that she wanted to release the report “as soon as possible”.

“I can’t guarantee that this (IGEM report) isn’t going to be contaminated by something that’s happening. There’s a fair bit happening at the federal level. We’ve got Matthew Guy in the media every day causing some kind of saga,” she said.

“If I was to sit on a report in the hope that it’s a free media day, I think that’d be doing a disservice to you guys.

“I want to get it out to you as soon as possible. I’ll avoid a Friday afternoon, I’ll give you that commitment.”

Ms Symes said she wouldn’t “pre-empt the contents” of the report, but said it highlighted the enormous pressure Covid had put on the system.

“What the report will show is that the pandemic had an unprecedented impact on call takers and their ability to answer calls at the benchmark,” she said.

The benchmark time is for 90 per cent of calls to be answered within five seconds. Before November 2020, that benchmark was reached — and sometimes exceeded — every month, Ms Symes said.

Ms Symes refused to comment on reports in Nine Newspapers, who reported that more than 1000 Victorians could have been harmed by triple-zero delays, according to leaked documents.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on documents that have made their way to the media that aren’t verified as from the IGEM report,” she said.

“What is accurate is that the IGEM has delivered his report on ESTA call performance in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Ambo boss slams ‘downright dangerous’ delays

The Ambulance Union boss has backed an investigation into deaths linked to triple-0 delays, with the Coroners Court set to review multiple fatalities.

It comes as a new review from the emergency services watchdog admits a surge in calls to Victoria’s emergency call-taking service led to “major community consequences” during the pandemic.

A Coroners Court spokeswoman confirmed investigations were “ongoing”.

“The coroner is currently reviewing a number of cases to determine how many will form the investigation into deaths linked to emergency call delays,” she said.

Victorian Ambulance Union General Secretary Danny Hill said the union would “absolutely” support an investigation into the deaths.

“We need to learn from it to make sure that it never happens again,” he said.

“The more light is shown on this issue the better we can protect against that ever happening again.”

Paramedics, Patrick McNamara, Michael Toussaint and Lewis Hopkins., with Victorian Ambulance Union General Secretary, Danny Hill. Picture: Jay Town

Nine newspapers reported on Tuesday that leaked figures show — in addition to 18 deaths previously reported — more than 100,000 calls to triple-0 faced delays over the recent crisis period.

The figures, reportedly from an Ambulance Victoria report, stated more than 1000 of these calls were for the second most serious type of incident (out of four) and 357 were for cardiac arrest cases.

Mr Hill said the delays were “downright dangerous” but the figures didn’t surprise him.

“We knew that there were delays at some points blowing out to 30 minutes,” he said.

“It’s just downright dangerous that people were waiting 10, 15, 30 minutes to get through to triple-0, because that call could very easily have been a patient in an immediate life threat, a call where you have to shave every split second off … to get to them to save their life.

“It’s not surprising that you had so many people captured in that group that were waiting a long period of time before they got an ambulance and it’s been identified that harm could have occurred to those people.”

An ESTA spokeswoman said any delay was “unacceptable”.

“We’re working hard to reduce them and get back to our pre-pandemic performance levels,” she said.

“Our Triple Zero operators care deeply about the service they provide to our Victorian community.

“Significant investment made by the government - including $333 million to bring on more call-takers, dispatchers, trainers and team leaders, and a specialised training program - have delivered a substantial improvement in call answer times.

“ESTA continues to actively recruit and train more call-takers every day.”

Danny Hill said the delays were ‘downright dangerous’ but the figures didn’t surprise him.

The Inspector-General for Emergency Management is also set to release a review into “emergency ambulance call-answer performance during the Covid-19 pandemic-related surge”.

The review — which has been completed but is yet to be released — was foreshadowed in their year in review, which was published earlier this month and acknowledged triple-zero delays had “placed the community at risk”.

“The Covid-19-related surge in triple-0 demand has had major community consequences with call answer times blowing out for calls relating to life-threatening emergencies,” the year in review stated.

“Sadly, numerous call answer delays may have had a negative effect on patient outcomes.

“The actual consequences of degraded call answer and response times for the community may not be clear for some time.

“It is the role of the Coroner to determine whether any call answer or response delays were contributing factors to any death.”

Their review will not be the first to examine the embattled call-taking service.

Former police commissioner Graham Ashton’s damning review into the Emergency Services Telecommunications Agency — announced in the wake of deadly delays reported by the Herald Sun — was released in May this year.

It called for the authority’s board to be disbanded, among a host of other recommendations.

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said they “will continue to work with ESTA to ensure that call answer times can continue to improve”.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on any cases that are under review by either Safer Care Victoria or the Coroner,” she said.

ESTA and the Justice and Community Safety Department were contacted for comment.