News
27th May, 2021
ESTA members should be proud
Recently several media outlets have published stories about delays in answering 000 ambulance calls, bringing much needed public attention to the significant danger faced by patients calling an ambulance.
The Emergency Service Telecommunications Authority’s (ESTA) own information states that calls have been placed on hold for over 2 minutes. This is an unacceptable delay that can have a life-or-death impact on patients.
Call Takers and Dispatchers who have publicly expressed their concerns, spoken to media outlets confidentially, or provided information to the VAU deserve to be commended for standing up and shining a light on this problem.
It is a noble and brave action to raise these concerns which are solely about patients in need of urgent care. None of the complaints have been criticisms of ESTA. They have been about concerns for patient safety.
While hearing the truth may be challenging for your employer, the VAU strongly encourage you to continue speaking up and sharing your stories. Your CEOs recent attempts to silence you has failed.
Instead, there has been a significant increase in member activity which would not have been possible without the recent motivation provided by your CEO. He may not want to hear what you have to say but the public do. They want to hear your voices and receive your care straight away when they need you.
The VAU would also like to put on record that we do not agree with comments recently published in the Age which suggest that calls that were not picked up within 5 seconds were sometimes considered ‘dead’ and that Call Takers would move on to a new call with the aim of picking it up within 5 seconds while leaving the initial call on hold. This comment is factually incorrect and caused significant offence. It was removed from the article following complaints made by members to the Age and clarification provided by them of the actual call taking process. As everyone understands, the system automatically allocates the oldest case to the next available Call Taker. No one is more alarmed with the delays than our members who are doing all they can to get to calls.
It is important that the public are provided with accurate information about ESTA systems, processes and problems, which is why reporting issues is so important.
Members can confidentially inform the VAU of delays, staff shortages or any other incident at https://www.vau.org.au/report-workplace-issue.