Toddler dies after tragic Triple-0 call delay: 'Unprecedented demand'
A toddler has died after a family waited almost two minutes to get through to Triple-0, putting further scrutiny on Victoria's handling of its stretched resources amid the Delta Covid crisis.
The three-year-old girl, a resident in a town outside Bendigo in Victoria, went into cardiac arrest on Monday about 6.29pm.
Ambulance Victoria Acting Loddon Mallee Regional Director, Trevor Weston, told Yahoo News Australia a crew arrived at 6.43pm after several were dispatched "without delay".
“They (Advanced Life Support paramedics) loaded the patient for hospital and were met by a MICA (Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance) crew while en route,” he said.
“Sadly, despite the best efforts of our paramedics and those on the scene, the patient did not survive.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the patient’s family at this difficult time.”
The Emergency Services and Telecommunications Authority (ESTA), which handles Triple-0 calls in Victoria, told Yahoo News Australia its operators "care deeply about the service they provide and the community they serve".
"ESTA sends our deepest condolences to the family involved," ESTA said.
"Because of the almost unprecedented demand on the day, the call was answered within 1 minute and 41 seconds, outside ESTA’s target range.
"There were no other ESTA performance issues.”
'Unacceptable' delays due to Covid-19
Sadly, many Victorians are facing Triple-0 call delays due to demand.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill told AAP on Monday people were forced to wait up to 10 minutes before their call was transferred to either police, fire or ambulance.
"The Emergency Services Telecommunication Authority were really busy, but quite short-staffed last night,” Mr Hill said on Tuesday.
“So at one point they had calls waiting up to 10 minutes, which is an unacceptable delay.”
He told the ABC a delay of one minute "could mean the difference between life and death" for those experiencing cardiac arrest.
“Those calls need to be answered within seconds to get the best chance at saving a life.”
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Health Minister Martin Foley said Triple-0 delays were related to demand from people in Covid-19 outbreak hotspots, particularly those in Melbourne's north and west.
"As concern and anxiety around Covid-19 grows, we see that level of demand grow," he told reporters.
"On top of that we are seeing unprecedented levels of demand right across our (health) system, and we need to make sure we do everything we can to get through that."
He encouraged Victorians to only call triple zero "for the most urgent calls" in coming weeks and months, which he said would be "a hugely challenging period".
Mr Hill warned that ramping, when ambulances are forced to park outside hospitals because the emergency department is full, will only get worse as Covid-19 cases continue to climb and restrictions are slowly eased.
"For every minute that an ambulance crew is waiting in a hospital corridor, they might be unable to respond to other cases out there in the community and that's the big risk that we've got," he said.
Burnet Institute modelling shows Victoria could be recording between 1400 and 2900 daily cases when the Delta outbreak peaks by the end of October.
At that stage, hospitalisations may climb to between 1200 and 2500.
Mr Foley said frontline healthcare staff "are working like never before".
"We've had, as recently as yesterday, discussions with Ambulance Victoria in a very productive level, as to the measures they're taking," he said.
He said plans are in place to supplement the state's workforce, with parts of the health system being "deprioritised", and partnerships with the private sector being developed "to switch demand from the public sector to the private sector".
with AAP
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