Shannon Deery: Triple-0 crisis the most critical facing our state
The problems plaguing triple-0 operator ESTA are literally a matter of life and death, so why then has Daniel Andrews yet to read, or be briefed on this major report?
Opinion
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In 2014 a deadly ambulance crisis and 000 delays shaped up as major state election issues.
Almost a decade later, nothing has changed.
It’s been almost a month since a review into Victoria’s crisis-addled triple-0 service was completed.
A report prepared by former police commissioner Graham Ashton was handed to the government at the end of March, but as of Thursday Daniel Andrews was yet to read it.
It’s hard to know what could be more pressing.
True, there are many issues facing Victoria right now: cost of living, health, pandemic recovery and record debt levels to name just a few.
The government is also at the centre of a Hotel Quarantine WorkSafe prosecution, and two probes by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog.
But the problems plaguing triple-0 operator the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority surely supersede them all.
Because they are literally a matter of life and death.
Odd then that the Premier is yet to read, or be briefed, on this major report, which has also not yet been made public.
It’s quite the stark contrast to 2014 when as opposition leader he campaigned hard on this very issue.
The problem was brought to the fore by the tragic case of Emmy Boyle, 3, who died after she was found floating in the bath of the family’s home in Melbourne’s north.
An ambulance arrived 23 minutes after a first 000 call accidentally disconnected, and 21 minutes after a second call.
“In 2014 every family should expect better than that (waiting 23 minutes),” Mr Andrews said at the time.
“Fundamentally, response times today are worse than they have ever been.”
Nevermind the ambulance arriving, now with less than 10 ambulance call-takers regularly on duty for the entire state, Victorians can wait longer than that for their call just to be answered.
The government has consistently hidden behind Covid as an excuse for a blowout in call wait times.
It says that prior to the Delta and Omicron waves of the pandemic, ESTA was meeting the emergency call taking target of 90 per cent of calls in five seconds each year since 2013.
But Andrews himself declared the issues a crisis in 2014.
An Auditor-General review that same year found critical failings with the service.
Two years later warnings about staff shortages inside ESTA were conveyed to the government.
Ambulance union boss Danny Hill has said the issues facing triple-0 and ambulance response times were both predictable and preventable.
He has pointed to the refusal of successive governments to implement minimum staffing levels as a critical failing that could have avoided the problem.
Over the past 12 months an explosion of call delays has been linked to the deaths of at least 12 people.
Buckling to pressure in October the government commissioned a review into ESTA.
Mr Ashton was asked to look at ESTA’s current functions and provide advice to the government on how to improve ESTA’s capability across several areas.
“Our hardworking emergency call takers have done their absolute best throughout unprecedented demand from the pandemic – but we want to see where things can be improved,” emergency services minister Jaclyn Symes said at the time.
“Mr Ashton has expert knowledge of how our emergency services should operate, and I look forward to seeing his recommendations on how we can continue to support our emergency services agencies to keep Victorians safe.”
Don’t we all.
There can be nothing more vital than knowing when help is needed, be it a medical, fire or police emergency, calls will be answered.
In 2020-21, ESTA answered more than 2.8 million calls, or one call every 11 seconds.
More than 1.9 million of these calls came via the triple-0 emergency call service.
Those numbers are only going to grow.
The government will surely seek to neutralise the issue in next week’s budget before releasing the findings.
In an effort to end the crisis it’s pulling together a package it hopes will curtail the problem until it implements more long-term changes.
Staffing levels are expected to be addressed.
IT upgrades and other technical improvements are also expected to be a key feature, adding to more than $100m already pumped into fix the problem.
But beyond concern about how the issue is fixed, we should all be asking how it ever got to this.
With the promised review now complete the government should make public the findings post haste — and reveal what they intend to do to prevent future lapses.
Shannon Deery is state political editor
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