More than 100 new emergency call-takers will be trained over the next year to try to fix Victoria's crisis-riddled triple-0 system.
Since October last year, up to 12 Victorians have died while waiting for an ambulance, as the overwhelmed system continues to be plagued by long delays and staff shortages.
The Victorian government has blamed an "unprecedented increase in calls" on the pandemic and deferred care, despite warnings about the system struggling to keep up with demand by the auditor-general as early as 2014.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said the coroner would investigate the deaths of a dozen people after their calls to triple-0 went unanswered or were picked up late.
The family of 14-year-old Alisha Hussein believes delays on the line contributed to her death from an asthma attack last year.
The teen dreamed of becoming a magistrate when she grew up "because she wanted to make the world a better place", her mother Jasmin Hussein said.
But in October 2021, on a day a thunderstorm asthma warning had been issued in Victoria, her dreams ended when she died in the back seat of her parents' car while her mother frantically called for help.
As a Telstra operator tried for three minutes to get an Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) operator on the line, Ms Hussein said she watched her daughter turn blue.
"[Alisha] said 'I'm not going to make it anyway' and after that she didn't really speak much," Ms Hussein said.
The family lives close to the Northern Hospital and Ms Hussein said they could not wait any longer.
They bundled Alisha into a car, and and raced towards help.
"We got very close to the street where you turn off to get to the hospital, that's when I knew. I knew. She wasn't responding, she didn't have a pulse," Ms Hussein said.
Ms Hussein performed CPR on her daughter until they reached the hospital.
"I shouldn't be doing that," she said.
"I should be able to hold her hand, tell her it's OK. I couldn't cuddle her, all I was doing was screaming at her to breathe."
Despite her desperate attempts to save her daughter and more than an hour of emergency response at the hospital, Alisha could not be revived.
"I could say I've got happy memories of her but the worst thing is the only thing I remember is the way she died," Ms Hussein said.
"ESTA did tell me that their reason for why my daughter died that night was because they were short staffed, and that doesn't sit right with me. I don't want to play the blame game on anything but there's something wrong."
Government acknowledges 'unacceptable' delays
A recruitment campaign is underway to hire 120 additional call-takers at the ESTA as part of a $115.6 million reform package.
"Delays in call-taking are unacceptable and we are doing everything we can to ensure the resources and support for ESTA are there, to provide service Victorians can rely on," Ms Symes said.
"To any family impacted by call delays, I want to give this firm commitment that I don't want other families to go through that experience."
Ms Hussein welcomed the funding.
The interim chief executive of ESTA, Steven Leane, said one in five calls currently being made to triple-0 did not need an ambulance, which was providing frustration for emergency call-takers.
Currently, the ambulance network is receiving more than 3,000 calls a day, compared to 2,000 calls a day a year ago.
"There is still stress in the system and the health system. ESTA is not immune to that, there is stress across the eastern seaboard," Mr Leane.
"I've stepped in to fix this and, with the support of government we've got now, we'll work towards getting this right."
Funding long overdue, union says
The government said the extra capacity would mean a "more consistent" number of call-takers will be rostered on each day and more workers would be able to be called on for overtime or extra shifts during busy periods.
ESTA has a benchmark of answering 90 per cent of ambulance triple-0 calls within just five seconds.
But in recent months, some Victorians have died after waiting as long as 15 minutes for their emergency calls to be answered.
The Victorian government hired 43 additional ESTA staff in October last year, in response to two deaths after emergency calls went unanswered for five minutes.
Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said that recruitment drive barely "touched the sides" in terms of the amount of staff that was needed.
"We are desperate. We definitely need the extra funding and the extra staff," he said.
"Had this happened in May last year when we started to see the ESTA call times start to blow out, we might not have seen some of the tragedies we have over the past few months."
The Victorian government said two major inquiries into the stretched triple-0 agency were due to report back by the middle of the year.
Former police chief Graham Ashton is heading a review into ESTA and is expected to recommend a complete overhaul of the structure of the emergency call-out system, with a report due in coming weeks.
The Inspector-General for Emergency Management also announced a major inquiry in December.
Shadow Emergency Services Minister Brad Battin said the funding had come too late.
"The Andrews Labor government has been in power for 11 of the past 15 years and they're the reason the triple-0 system is in crisis," he said.
"There is only one way to fix it: get more staff. Get them in now and ensure those calls are answered."
