Legal action against Victoria’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority looming

Daniel Andrews has been slammed over his handling of the triple-0 crisis, as a class action looms over the flawed service’s “systemic failings”.

Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin has slammed the Premier’s handling of the triple-0 crisis, including his failure to reach out to families who lost loved ones.

“These families would never want to go to court,” he said.

“They should have spoken to every one of these families about their concerns and their issues.

“But what it’s led to now is more pain, more frustration, and more anger from each and every one of those family members.”

Mr Battin said the Premier had “disrespected” those families by not reading the Ashton report.

“Daniel Andrews over the last couple of weeks has had time to campaign on behalf of Anthony Albanese, but he didn’t have time to read a report about 18 people dying here in Victoria,” he said.

“That’s not just disrespectful, that’s disgraceful.”

The Liberal MP said the report highlighted the flaws within the Victorian ambulance call taking service, well before the pandemic started.

He said the government had “blood on their hands” for failing to act over the last eight years.

“(The Premier) continues to pat himself on the back for his record funding into health here in the state.

“Results don’t come from just money, they come from a change of structure.”

Bernard and Corine Anseline are grieving their daughter who died after she waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mr Battin said in addition to the onboarding of more call-taking staff there also needed to be cross training across departments, including at fire, ambulance and police stations.

“When we have a burst or surge of calls in one area, whether it’s the Black Saturday fires, ambulances with the crisis we’ve had through Covid or the asthma storms, we need to make sure people can cross over and train and have the best team possible,” he said.

Mr Battin’s comments come as massive legal action is looming against Victoria’s embattled triple-0 services as lawyers say the number of victims of overly delayed responses could run into the thousands.

Slater & Gordon Lawyers says it is considering a class ­action over “systemic failings” that have plagued the ambulance call-handling operations of the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) with deadly consequences.

It claims its investigations dating back to 2014 suggest thousands of emergency callers have experienced avoidable and unacceptable delays.

Those cases come on top of reports that at least 15 people, ­including children, have died since October 2021 as calls to triple-0 went unanswered.

The tragedies led to an ­investigation by former top cop Graham Ashton, released last week. The state government says it will accept his 20 recommendations to overhaul the ESTA and will rebrand it as “Triple-0 Victoria”.

But Slater & Gordon class actions senior associate Gemma Leigh-Dodds claimed systemic failures dated back much further, with records ­revealing ESTA had failed to meet its minimum statutory benchmarks for dispatch ­ambulances to the most urgent cases from 2016-21.

“ESTA’s critical role means its shortcomings are not just unfortunate, we believe they have led to multiple deaths and injuries that could have been prevented,” Ms Leigh-Dodds said. “In a critical health situation, minutes can be the difference between life and death, a one-off injury or a lifelong medical condition.

“Callers are relying on ESTA to get medics on the scene as soon as possible.

“We believe ESTA has breached its statutory and common law obligations by not providing its required service when callers expect to be connected to urgent medical help in a timely manner.”

Lydia died from an asthma attack. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

As part of a series of exclusive reports into ESTA’s failures, the Herald Sun this month revealed the tragic death of 14-year-old Lydia Anseline.

Her father, Bernard, watched his daughter die after she waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance on April 13.

Mr Anseline, who is pursuing legal action against Ambulance Victoria, said he would also consider joining a class ­action against ESTA.

“I support the class action against ESTA because our family have gone through the most traumatic ordeal when phoning triple-0 and having to wait so long for an ambulance to arrive,” he said.

“We should’ve been told in the first instance from the call taker that there were delays and I would have driven Lydia straight to the hospital. Nothing can bring my beautiful daughter back; it’s been 40 days since we lost her and I support other families who are joining the class ­action, too. I really don’t want another family to go through this.”

Ambulance Victoria acting chief executive Libby Murphy on Friday told the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee that 21 deaths linked to critical delays were being investigated, including 18 thought to be the responsibility of ESTA.

At least 15 of the deaths linked to call delays have been referred to the coroner, while Victoria’s Inspector-General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce is conducting another review of the system.

Health Minister Martin Foley has refused to apologise to families that had been failed by the emergency services crisis.

Mr Andrews refused to comment on the legal proceedings.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have passed and their families but given there may well be legal action, I can’t comment on that,” he said.

“There’s a bit of politics being played with this which is very unfair on those families. It does no good to anyone.”

The Premier said he visited ESTA headquarters last Wednesday to meet with call-taking staff and officials from Ambulance Victoria, Victoria Police, Fire Rescue Victoria and CFA.

“On behalf of all Victorians, I thanked them for the very challenging work that they do,” he said.

“The key point is to value them and to make sure that they’re in no doubt that their government supports them in the work they do.”

Ambulance Services Minister Martin Foley on Friday refused to apologise to families failed by emergency services.

“I have apologised for the unacceptable arrangements wherein the circumstances of people, particularly ringing triple-0, that they haven’t got the service they are entitled to – every death is a tragedy,” Mr Foley said.

Ms Leigh-Dodds said her law firm was already acting for many people, including children, who had “suffered significant injuries” due to what they say are ESTA call-handling failures.

“We are investigating whether family members of those whose loved ones have died due to ESTA call-taking and dispatch delays are entitled to damages for nervous shock and economic loss,” she said.

An ESTA spokesman said: “All deaths or serious injuries are heartbreaking and devastating to the families and friends left behind, and we offer our sincere condolences to them as they continue to grieve”.

To register visit https://www.slatergordon.com.au/esta