Hill said the “guesswork” involved during the CAD system crash was stressful for operators, and required a full understanding of local areas.
“It’s horrible for our members working at the communications center,” he said. “Last night they did an amazing job of overcoming the workload.”
The computer problem was resolved in about 30 minutes.
Although services were said to have returned to normal about an hour later, ambulances could still be seen outside Royal Melbourne Hospital at 7am on Friday.
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Patients arriving at the hospital were left waiting in bunks in the hallways while ambulances went outside, Nine News and 3AW reported.
“This is not just at the Royal Melbourne last night, it would have happened at almost any hospital,” Hill said.
Even without the computer crash, Hill said Victoria Ambulance would probably have declared an orange code overnight due to the increased workload and limited staff.
“The whole system just can’t handle the massive demand that’s happening right now,” Hill said.
“The whole system just can’t handle the massive demand that’s happening right now.”
Danny Hill, Secretary of State for the Victorian Ambulance Union
Callers were placed in a “pending queue,” where many received calls from a nurse or paramedic to discuss alternative pathways.
“This is a sign of a very tense system,” he said.
The exact cause of the latest CAD system crash has not yet been determined.
Victoria Victoria’s secretary of ambulance staff, Brett Adie, said staff shortages due to COVID were pushing the system to the limit, “but the problem cannot be fully attributed to the pandemic”.
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“The system was tightening as hard as it could be and it was failing the community before COVID,” Adie said.
“Governments and health services are using COVID to explain the increase in demand when in fact demand was already increasing year after year and we have been warning about the problems since before COVID.”
Victoria’s triple zero calling system is failing along with a hospital system in crisis. Emergency services have reached record levels, with critically ill patients receiving treatment in the aisles due to bed shortages.
Victoria Ambulance last declared a red code in March, with numerous orange code alerts issued since then.
At least 12 people have died as a result of the triple zero system tension since October.
Following a review of the crisis by former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) will be renamed Triple Zero Victoria and its nine-person board and advisory committee will be dissolved.
Inspector General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce will conduct a second death review as a result of triple-zero failures, which will be handed over to the government in August.
Ambulance Victoria’s interim executive director Libby Murphy said statewide ambulance response times to the most critical emergencies have improved slightly in the third quarter of 2021/22, despite record demand.
“Our lives may be returning to normal, but the extraordinary stress on our paramedics and the entire health care system persists,” Murphy said in a statement.
Royal Melbourne Hospital has been contacted for comment.
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