Ambulance crisis

[Jezza]

<Split from the coronavirus thread. Talk away about Victoria's useless ambulance service to your heart's content.>

Meanwhile in Melbourne:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... igh-demand

[Dave The Man]

Meanwhile in Melbourne:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... igh-demand

But how many probably did not to be Called?

[eddiesmith]

So we’re not allowed to discuss Victoria’s ambulance crisis? Ok then…

[stui magpie]

The current Ambulance crisis appears to be multi faceted and I don't pretend to understand exactly what's going on.

It seems there are several blockages. Call centre operators so the Telstra 000 people have no one to put calls through to, Actual paramedics, ER backups so Ambulances have to wait at hospitals and can't get back on the road...

At least a chunk of the problems would appear to be with people being required to isolate which reduces the workforce, I'd be surprised if another contributing factor isn't funding.

[eddiesmith]

There has also been a continuous lack of funding from the Victorian government for all our emergency services leading to regular shortages across the board, even pre Covid.

But you don’t hear much from the unions as they are getting their pockets lined by the government so they stay quiet about the issues on the frontline.

This is not a new problem with ambulances that’s only started in the last 2 years.

[Pies4shaw]

https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 5a8go.html

[Pies4shaw]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-19/ ... /101081118

Victoria's embattled triple-0 service will be renamed and its board disbanded as part of a state government overhaul, amid blown-out waiting times for critically ill patients and staff shortages.

The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) will be rebadged as Triple Zero Victoria, with the government also pledging "major governance changes and reforms in relation to performance standards".

Former police commissioner Graham Ashton has been reviewing ESTA's performance, and said the agency had displayed "continued and systematic underperformance".

"The review established that internally ESTA, pre-October 2021, operated more as a corporate entity than an organisation delivering a critical emergency management service," Mr Ashton found.

The full report can be downloaded as a pdf from this page: https://www.vic.gov.au/ESTA-capability- ... ice-review , as can the Government's response.

The section on that webpage spruiking the response (eg, "The Government won’t waste a minute in implementing these vital reforms") is, IMRO, inappropriate for a public sector website.

[eddiesmith]

Isn’t that site a government site and not just the public sector?

Anyway, nothing like wasting some money on a name change to improve services, clearly works for other departments.

OT, the department of name changes (Or DEWLP) hasn’t undergone one for a while, they must be due.

[think positive]

Sigh,

That’s why we locked down, because this was always going to happen,

The system is rooted and I’m guessing in no small part to clowns gonig to hospital emergency departments for non urgent reasons, such as flu symptoms, and dickheads calling emergency services for non urgent matters.


It was a hiding to nowhere. There just are not enough vans and paramedics. The retention rate is terrible, 3 of juniors friends trained for it’sand quit in less than a year, they could not hack it. Aside from the gory calls, there are the suicides, and the agressive mongrels.

[stui magpie]

I'l have a read of the report later on. Thanks for that.

What most people don't understand is that when you first call 000 you go to a Telstra call centre who's job is to quickly triage your call.

"Police, Fire or Ambulance", then location. They then put you through to the appropriate state setup, as defined by the states in how they want to manage calls.

Esta is/was the Victorian contact centre that received calls from 000.

Ambulance waiting times are a different problem largely caused by bed blockages at hospitals. This (as I understand it without reading the report) is about people waiting on hold to speak to a person while dying or otherwise needing assistance.

[eddiesmith]

Yep, plus ESTA is also responsible for the dispatch of all emergency services and managing their radio traffic, another area constantly hit by lack of staff and not helped by the massive increase in traffic on the fire channels thanks to Dans reforms which didn't consider that...

[Dave The Man]

Heard lot of People Call when they just get Diagnosed with Covid.

You don't call just because you Tested Postive you would need to be Very Sick/Struggle to Breath to call an Ambulance

[stui magpie]

The Telstra 000 team are the first line of screening.

Some of the bullshit reasons people call 000 for are ridiculous. Someone will write a book one day.

[think positive]

Junior called it when she was about 4, they rang us back and told us off!

[think positive]

Child in grade 2 at juniors school had a major seizure at lunch time, in front of all the kids in her class, junior had the class for the next lesson. Very traumatic for her as her best friend had one next to her in year 11, and then committed suicide a few years later thanks to the meds. But junior being junior sucked it up and got the poor kids through it.

Three ambulances answered the call, and all three remained for the entire time, poor child needed the defibrillator, no word on how she is. Three ambulances, seems strange, you’d think one and an acute care maybe. I’m just glad they got there in time.