Victorian lives continue to be placed at risk as another person has died after waiting on hold to Triple-0, this time for 30 minutes.
People in life threatening situations calling for help need someone to answer their calls and to assure them assistance is on the way. Due to a lack of planning over the past 20 months for any increase in COVID-19 activity, people are now dying on hold.
In June, an audit found that glitches and serious outages affecting the triple-0 call system could result in the deaths of 18 people a day, yet still no action has been taken.
Triple-0 call staff work exceptionally hard in challenging and extremely difficult circumstances, they need extra support and they needed it yesterday.
The only support they are getting now is chaos in senior management and a review expected to take 12 months before recommendations are made. Too many people will die without action now.
As stated by Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Brad Battin:
“Daniel Andrews said every second counts when it comes to saving lives, now he is happy to wait twelve months for another review.
“The Andrews Labor Government’s failure to plan for the current crisis has resulted in people dying, and potentially more as the government continue to sit on their hands.”
