Crisis-plagued triple-0 service to be overhauled and rebranded
A couple was left to watch their unresponsive baby turn grey after their triple-0 calls went unanswered. It’s among the many failures that sparked an overhaul of the embattled service.
Emergency Services
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The embattled emergency call-taking service will be overhauled and rebranded to become “triple-0 Victoria” after a report into why the system has failed the community.
The report, by former top cop Graham Ashton, details how the Emergency Services and Telecommunications Authority has battled to keep up with increasing demand.
“Over its short history the number of times when the system has failed continues to grow, often with dire outcomes,” the report says.
It comes after a series of exclusive Herald Sun reports revealing tragic ESTA failures, including the death of a man whose wife waited 40 minutes for an ambulance.
Despite the report being handed to government in March, it was made public only on Thursday afternoon.
It reveals the state’s emergency service organisations (ESOs) – police, firefighters and paramedics – have for years been frustrated by ESTA’s service delivery, “to the point where significant delays continue to occur”.
One emergency service department reported having to wait more than 10 years for a change it requested.
“All ESOs had the view that they were a customer of ESTA and that as a customer were not receiving the level of service for which they were paying via the annual fees to ESTA,” the report states.
“The range of concerns were considerable and generally stem from a view that ESTA does not move to address issues with sufficient speed … and that communication with ESTA was difficult and often ineffective.”
It warns the service is being operated with the mentality of a call centre rather than as an emergency management service.
The damning review also finds ESTA was unable to meet surge demand during significant storm events in 2021 and throughout peak periods in the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Although the latter event is considered unprecedented, these are the types of surge events where ESTA’s aggregated model should have delivered an exceptional and co-ordinated emergency response,” the report adds.
Across ESTA’s eight core service areas, the authority was found to be either basic or limited in ability. It fell behind other jurisdictions in key areas including rostering and scheduling, and staff wellbeing.
In response, the service will be renamed to shake off its toxic brand and brought into the government to allow the state to better manage its funding and staffing.
The overhaul will be supported by a $333m funding package, announced in this month’s budget, to hire more staff and upgrade outdated IT systems.
ESTA chief executive Stephen Leane said the review would take the organisation “where it needs to go”.
“There is a lot of change in the organisation. It’s ripe for change, it’s got an appetite for change, and it’s ready for change,” he said.
Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill said the recommendations were “basically what we have been advocating for, which is great governance, improved performance standards and better relationships”.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said Victorians “should have the confidence that when they call for help in an emergency, they will get it”.
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier lashed the handling of the matter.
“It’s a disgrace that the government has the gall to do this at such a late stage,” Ms Crozier said. “Under the cover of that (election) campaign, they are hiding this report.”
The Herald Sun this month revealed the tragic death of 14-year-old Lydia Anseline.
Her grieving father, Bernard, who watched his daughter die after waiting more than 30 minutes for an ambulance, said he hoped the overdue recommendations would be implemented quickly.
“They should have fixed all of these issues before the pandemic,” he said. “So many families have lost their loved ones and it’s not good enough.”
‘Our baby was grey and not breathing’
A terrified couple were left watching their unresponsive baby turn grey as they sped for help and their emergency calls to triple-0 went unanswered last week.
Even when a triple-0 operator finally answered their call, Ashley Walter and Tamika Franklin say they were left waiting a further 12 minutes to be connected to an ambulance dispatcher before they arrived at Kyabram hospital and hung up.
Although their son Lawson, 15 months, is expected to make a full recovery from his May 12 ordeal, the Girgarre farmers fear other lives will be lost unless Victoria’s triple-0 system is overhauled.
“We’ve got to be able to rely on a service that’s not really capable of supplying what the demand is at the moment,” Mr Walter said.
“You try to ring for emergency service and they’re the people you’re counting on to be able to help you out of that situation, but you can’t get a call back or even get a call through.”
At about 5.30pm on May 12, Lawson suffered an unexpected seizure and became unresponsive at their Girgarre farm, so the shocked parents began trying to call triple-0 while loading him into their ute.
As Mr Walter drove from Girgarre to Kyabram hospital Ms Franklin called triple-0 another three times, but each call rang out.
After a call was finally answered and an operator asked whether the couple wanted police, fire or ambulance, Mr Walter said they had to endure another 12-minute wait while the operator failed to connect to an ambulance dispatcher.
Before the call was connected the terrified parents arrived at Kyabram hospital so hung up to rush inside for help.
“He was grey and not breathing by the time we got to the hospital. It was terrifying,” Mr Walter said.
“The lady kept on saying ‘they will get through, they will get through, help is on the way’.
“It really wasn’t on the way and we had no idea where it was or where it was coming from.”
Once at the hospital the ordeal continued because Kyabram’s urgent care unit had already closed, so staff made another call for an ambulance to take Lawson to Shepparton’s Goulburn Valley hospital.
When paramedics arrived half an hour later they requested a MICA specialist to meet them on the road to Shepparton to help with Lawson’s care due to his difficulty breathing, but Mr Walter praised their efforts once the crews had finally been alerted.
Although Lawson recovered at Goulburn Valley hospital he was sent to the Royal Children’s Hospital for scans on Wednesday, which cleared him of permanent injury.
“He is not back to his normal self yet, but he is getting there,” Mr Walter said.
“It something we don; ’t want anyone to have to do again.
“As young parents you don’t want to see kids in that sort of state at all.”
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