As the minutes ticked away, Katy Woods wondered if she would die, too
As Katy Woods felt her throat close up, her thoughts darted to a man she had never met.
Just a few months earlier, she had been reading about Preston father Nick Panagiotopoulos, who died after multiple calls to triple-zero from his family and neighbours went unanswered for more than 15 minutes.
Credit:Chris Hopkins
On a warm January night, Ms Woods wondered if she would die, too. She saw panic on the face of the receptionist of the Brighton hotel where she was staying, realising his triple-zero call for her had not connected to an operator.
“I’m sort of half passed out, just trying to decrease every energy expenditure and looking at this poor receptionist who’s just beyond disbelief that he’s been trying to call emergency and speaking to a Telstra lady whose saying ‘we’re trying to connect you… we are trying to connect you’.”
The 39-year-old survived her suspected allergic reaction, after what she has since estimated was a 15 to 20-minute delay to reach Victoria’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) on January 31.
On Monday, two Andrews government ministers were unable to say what Victorians, like Ms Wood, should do in an emergency if their triple-zero call was not picked up.
“I can’t provide an answer to a hypothetical question,” Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes and ESTA interim CEO Stephen Leane speak to the media. Credit:Chis Hopkins
“I cannot give health advice to individuals, I would always urge you to call triple-zero in an emergency, however, of course if you have alternative ways to access health support … I would encourage people to consider all of their options. But in the first instance, you should always, always call triple-zero in an emergency.”
The government had announced $115.6 million in funds to hire 120 call takers by the middle of next year after coming under intense pressure to act following revelations by The Age and 60 Minutes that 12 Victorians including four children have died since October after waiting up to 16 minutes to connect to an ambulance dispatcher at ESTA.
Significant delays of more than a minute have affected tens of thousands of calls since September, according to leaked performance data, and ESTA’s interim chief executive Stephen Leane said on Monday that problems remained.
He conceded the agency was struggling to retain staff and had been unprepared to handle a significant increase in demand during the pandemic.
“Even on the weekend we’re getting close to 3000 calls a day, where 12 months ago was 2000,” Mr Leane said.
“An organisation can’t stretch to 50 per cent (more) overnight,” he said, noting that the ESTA crisis had not just left many families grieving, but also traumatised hard-working ESTA call takers working overtime to try and fill staff shortages.
Victorian Ambulance Union state secretary Danny Hill said the union started hearing about delays reaching triple-zero last May, when he was told about wait times of between a minute or two.
The former head of ESTA, Marty Smyth, resigned as CEO in October, replaced by Mr Leane, another board member and former Victoria Police assistant commissioner.
Mr Hill said the Victorian government, the ESTA board and those in senior positions at the time all had a case to answer around the lack of action in 2021 preparing for the Delta and Omicron COVID-19 waves.
“When these cases started to blow out in May, why didn’t we do more then? It takes months to train up new ESTA call takers and dispatchers.”
The union chief said one of the most frightening things about the situation was that there were likely to be many cases where ESTA delays had resulted in harm that authorities are yet to be made aware of “because their calls have literally not been answered”.
“It’s frightening to think about how many times someone who should have had an ambulance may have decided to get behind the wheel or drive themselves into hospital when they were really unwell, or take a family member to hospital when they were really unwell.”
The Age has contacted ESTA for comment about Ms Woods’ reported triple-zero call answer delay.
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