Victorian paramedics under pressure as RAVNET radio system fails in parts of state

A radio system crash has forced paramedics in parts of Victoria to rely on mobile phones to pass on updates.

Victoria’s triple-0 radio system has crashed across the Loddon Mallee and Hume Regions. Picture: David Geraghty

An ambulance radio system used in regional Victoria needs “urgent” upgrades, a peak union says, after an outage forced Bendigo and Shepparton crews to use their mobiles to report back updates.

Victorian Ambulance Union General Secretary Danny Hill said paramedics in the Loddon Mallee and Hume Regions could not use their radios to reply to or update the control centre for several hours.

“The radios used in rural Victoria belong in a museum,” he said.

He said Wednesday’s outage did not slow response times — a different communication system assigns crews to jobs — but it meant they could not quickly reply or give updates on a situation via radio.

“The radio is just ‘push to talk’,” he said.

“It takes time to dial a number.”

Preparations are underway for an upgrade — expected next year — but Mr Hill said the union had been calling out communication issues for as “long as he can remember” and the RAVNet system was “archaic”.

“This has been an ongoing issue and will happen again,” he said.

“Melbourne has an advanced digital system.”

An Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority spokeswoman said the issue was now resolved and had not impacted the dispatch of services to the community.

“ESTA had an intermittent radio interruption, affecting two of its regional channels in the Bendigo and Shepparton area used to communicate between ambulance dispatchers and paramedics crews”.

“Mobile phones were being used to communicate to in field crews.”