Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (12:18): My question is again to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, on the morning of Sunday, 16 March 2021, the husband of Bernadette Lancaster called 000 reporting that his wife was unresponsive, profusely sweating and grey in colour. Having waited in vain for an hour, Bernadette’s husband rang 000 back asking for an ETA for Bernadette’s ambulance but was told that ETAs were not given out by ESTA. When medics finally arrived at Bernadette’s home in Doreen after nearly 2½ hours, Bernadette was classified category 1 and transported to the Northern Hospital. Minister, Bernadette’s family are justifiably considerably distressed and concerned about her experience, and I therefore ask: why is your government’s heartless policy not to give desperately worried Victorians like Bernadette’s husband some idea of the time of arrival of their ambulance?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:19): I thank Mr Davis for his question. These are complex matters that are not as simplistic as the answer you are trying to extract from me. Similar to my explanation yesterday to Ms Crozier about how, when you accept a call at 000, it is triaged and an ambulance can be dispatched, there is another team that look at the call and make the clinical analysis. At times it is category 1, lights and sirens, away the ambulance goes. If it is downgraded or if it is assessed at a lower category, it may still be sent as a priority, but if a category 1 comes up at the same time the ambulance then might be diverted to respond to that incident. So in terms of providing an ETA, this is a dynamic environment, so I would defer to the experts at Ambulance Victoria in determining the appropriate responses and the appropriate order of those responses.
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (12:20): Minister, I thank you for your response on that. But Bernadette’s sister considers the situation that has been described to her by the family as unacceptable, and I might say she has spoken to me and a number of others. When will ESTA and Ambulance Victoria provide a level of service to Victorians that Stella, her sister, would consider acceptable?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:20): It is of course my endeavour, this government’s endeavour and that of the hardworking management and staff at ESTA to ensure that the services that are provided to the Victorian community are up to scratch, are what the community expects, and there have been ongoing improvements because of the government’s support since I have been minister. When I became minister, it was at the peak of some of the numbers of calls, which was extremely challenging. We talk about the benchmark often in this place of answering 90 per cent of calls in 5 seconds. We are regularly meeting that now—not every day, but that is what we are working towards. The fact is that we are seeing vast improvements each and every day. With the support of this government, with the management, with the additional resources and with the additional staff I do expect that we are getting closer and closer to that every day.