Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has apologised to the families of 33 people who died while waiting for an ambulance during the pandemic but said the funding model of the state’s triple-zero call-taking agency was not to blame.
Andrews described the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta) as “completely and utterly overwhelmed” by calls relating to Covid-19 at the time of the deaths, which were detailed in an independent report released on Saturday.
“It’s a unique and very, very challenging set of circumstances,” he said on Tuesday.
“Of course, I offer my deepest condolences and sympathies and my personal apology – and the apology of the government more broadly – to anybody who has been touched by this virus, and particularly those who have lost a loved one.
“You can’t imagine the pain and the great burden that those families carry with them every single day.”
The review, conducted by Victoria’s inspector general for emergency management , Tony Pearce, identified 40 “potential adverse events” linked to triple-zero delays, lengthy ambulance waits and command decisions at Esta between December 2020 and May 2022, during the Delta and Omicron waves.
Of the 40 events, 33 patients did not survive. Pearce did not make any findings about whether faster intervention would have prevented the deaths, noting it would be a matter for the coroner.
But he said the government was aware Esta was in a “precarious financial position” well before the pandemic, given it had been providing supplementary funding via the state budget since 2014-15.
Pearce described the nature of such funding as “ad hoc”, making it difficult for Esta to plan for the recruitment of extra workers. He urged the government to create a sustainable, long-term funding model for the agency, noting such work has been under way for more than 10 years.
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, is addressing media for the first time since an independent review into the state’s triple zero call-taking service found 33 people died after waiting too long for an ambulance. “It was a period of surge unlike any other,” he says. pic.twitter.com/gM3IdcHeGc
— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) September 5, 2022
Andrews said there was “no equivalence” between the organisation’s funding model and its inability to respond to calls during the 18-month period detailed in the report.
“Nothing in that model would avoid the system being overwhelmed by thousands of additional calls for day after day after day. That’s just a fact,” he said.
“Nevertheless, we have committed to implement all of those findings to make Esta as strong as [we can] possibly make it, so that in the event that we have further, unique events, we’re in the best possible position we can be.
“We owe it to every family across the state to learn from this.”
Andrews said Esta was “meeting and exceeding” its target of 90% of calls answered within five seconds prior to the pandemic, with a “steady improvement” in performance in recent months thanks in part to the recruitment of more than 100 call-takers.
He also defended the timing of the report’s release – on a Saturday when the AFL finals dominated the headlines and most political and health reporters were not working – as well as his absence from the press conference.
“We’re in Melbourne. Every day in September is about football,” Andrews said.
“Cabinet dealt with [the report] on Friday afternoon. If it had been released on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week, then you’d be putting it to me that it had been sat on for a period of time.”
The opposition described Andrews as a “coward” over the timing of the report’s release and for not holding a press conference until Tuesday.
“It’s all about PR,” said the opposition leader, Matthew Guy.
“The premier’s apology drips with insincerity. What we want is the system fixed. We wanted the system fixed in 2015 when he got the first report … not six or seven years later, when 33 people have lost their lives.”
