Almost a month ago, Diana Schumacher had an unexpected anaphylactic reaction after eating a piece of fish.
Key points:
Ambulance Victoria and ESTA are not meeting time benchmarks to answer emergency calls or get to urgent callouts
ESTA's annual report notes some triple-0 calls are going unanswered for up to 20 minutes
The Ambulance Union says ESTA is chronically understaffed
A registered nurse with nearly 50 years of experience, Ms Schumacher knew what to do as soon as she felt symptoms coming on.
"I realised I was having an anaphylactic reaction, so the first thing I did was dial triple-0," Ms Schumacher said.
But no-one ever answered her call.
It had been more than 15 years since Ms Schumacher had last experienced an anaphylactic attack, and she did not have an EpiPen at home with her.
She did have an anaphylaxis kit in her car, which she would usually use at work.
"I just happened to have it because I'm an immunisation nurse, and that's part of the kit that I carry. It's lucky I hadn't cleaned the car out yet."
While the phone was still ringing, Ms Schumacher gave herself her first dose of adrenaline.
After nearly 15 minutes with no answer from triple-0, she hung up the call and decided to look after herself with the materials in her kit.
However, Ms Schumacher said her face and eyes were so swollen she had to lift her own eyelids to monitor her heart rate and blood pressure.
After an hour, four shots of adrenaline and an antihistamine later, she began to feel better.
"I didn't call triple-0 back. I knew what was happening and that they were just absolutely overwhelmed and, luckily, I knew how to look after myself," she said.
Ms Schumacher said the incident had made her think about making a plan for when an ambulance might not be available.
"It can be quite frightening because we're led to believe that triple-0 is always there, that it's an immediate response, and the ambos will be there when we need them," she said.
"I think there is now a lot of personal responsibility that people need to think ahead."
Ambos union says there aren't enough operators to take calls
Ms Schumacher's case is hardly an isolated incident, with the Ambulance Union regularly reporting significant delays in emergency calls being answered by the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA).
The union says calls are going unanswered for up to 20 minutes at a time, and there have been reports of a nursing home calling the police for help with a cardiac arrest rather than waiting on hold for an ambulance.
Union secretary Danny Hill said low staffing levels at ESTA were to blame.
"Unfortunately, we just don't have enough room in the system to be able to cope with these peaks in demand," Mr Hill said.
In a statement, an ESTA spokesperson said the rise in demand for emergency services had led to longer wait times and that any delays in answering emergency calls were "unacceptable".
"Our triple-0 operators care deeply about the service they provide and the community they serve. We are always distressed if anyone has to wait," the spokesperson said.
"Because of the level of demand last night, the call answer time for several events was outside ESTA's target range for emergency ambulance responses.
Annual reports reveal benchmark failures across the board
Annual reports for both Ambulance Victoria and ESTA were tabled in parliament yesterday, two of 214 reports released on the annual government "dump day'" when dozens of government departments and authorities table their annual reports.
Ambulance Victoria's annual report shows only 77 per cent of code 1 emergencies were responded to within the benchmark of 15 minutes.
In the most life-threatening incidents, known as priority 0, only 81 per cent were responded to within the benchmark 13 minutes.
However, as the report showed, once the ambulances got to the hospitals, it was still not smooth sailing.
Annual reports from Melbourne's major hospitals show many failed to meet the 90 per cent benchmark for getting ambulance patients transferred within 40 minutes.
- At the Austin Hospital, only 52 per cent of patients were transferred within 40 minutes.
- At Monash Medical Centre, it was 57.7 per cent of patients.
- At Sunshine Hospital, in Melbourne's west, 60 per cent of patients were transferred within that target, and at nearby Footscray Hospital, it was 62 per cent.
- At St Vincent's, 70 per cent of patients were transferred within 40 minutes.
Several hospitals also failed to meet the target of having no patients staying more than 24 hours in the emergency department (ED).
At Sunshine Hospital, it was 390 patients who were in the ED longer than 24 hours, at Monash Medical Centre, 58 patients — more than one a week, and at the Werribee Mercy Hospital, it was 47.
ESTA dispatchers also missed key targets, only answering 86 per cent of priority 0 and 1 calls within two-and-a-half minutes.
The delays were attributed to a 15 per cent increase in calls to emergency dispatchers in the past financial year due to the pandemic.
In question time yesterday, Victoria's Health Minister, Martin Foley, said he was looking forward to Victoria's health system returning to a more normal state.
"I look forward when this global pandemic is out of the way … to get again into that space of partnering with Ambulance Victoria, with our paramedics, to get us back to that world-class standard." Mr Foley told parliament.
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2021-10-28 19:45:10Z
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