Victoria’s triple-zero emergency call system failed badly in response to the COVID surge at the end of 2021.
The review of Victoria’s emergency ambulance call answer performance by the state’s inspector-general for emergency management was released on Saturday morning by the Andrews government. Damon Johnson at The Australian was entirely right to call the timing of the release cowardly, gutless and disgraceful. The “trash” being taken out in a sneaky weekend release involved 33 lives.
The review found that from October 2021 to March 2022, the performance of Victoria’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) materially degraded: most 000 calls were not answered within five seconds — its standard benchmark — and often took 10 minutes. In one case, it took 76 minutes. The result: “There were 40 events involving seriously ill and injured patients, many of which were subject to call answer delays. Tragically, 33 people did not survive these emergencies.”
Some of those may have died regardless of the delay. Others would have survived. The final number of deaths will be a matter for the coroner.
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