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The cause of the power issue is now under investigation.
Three internal sources not authorised to speak publicly said that the power failure was related to the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system at the main calling centre in Burwood.
“That basically took out the entire building, shut down everything from the air conditioning through to the lights, all of the phone servers, all of the computer servers … all the radio power went down. Everything stopped.”
For a short period after the outage, Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said that staff in the control room in Burwood had to resort to handheld walkie-talkies because the radio system wasn’t working.
An internal union source, not authorised to speak publicly, disputed the government’s position that all calls continued to be answered throughout the outage.
They said phone lines went down at the main call-answering centre in Burwood for a period of time, causing delays as unsuccessful attempts were made to connect callers with the centre. These calls were then diverted to the two other call centres at Ballarat or Williams Landing, resulting in answering delays.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery.Credit: Justin McManus
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery, who was appointed in May, said that despite the outage, there are currently “no specific patient safety events reported at this time”.
While acknowledging that the situation is “concerning”, Emery said the exact circumstances of the system failure are still being investigated by Triple Zero Victoria through a detailed review.
Emery said the computer-aided dispatch system used by Triple Zero Victoria was currently in the process of a “significant upgrade”.
“Like all technological solutions, they need to be retired over time, replaced with more up-to-date technology, and that process is underway,” he said.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill.
When asked whether the delivery of the upgrade was too slow, Emery said: “It’s a major upgrade … it cuts across all emergency service organisations … and that’s taking place as we speak.”
Hill said the outage caused major inefficiencies in the emergency response process.
When the CAD system is down, dispatchers lose the ability to track the location of resources across the state.
“So if a job comes in for Preston, for example, they can see that there’s an ambulance two kilometres down the road. When that system crashes, they actually have to get on the radio and ask: ‘Are there any crews available for a job in Preston?’ They have to manually do all those things,” Hill said.
Hill said call-takers are forced to manually write down all incident information, which is then physically handed to a dispatcher to assign the case.
“It’s a very, very inefficient way of doing things, basically going back in time a couple of decades,” he said. “Categorically, it makes it harder. And often the crews out there on the road don’t get the information that they need.”
Hill said he was aware of a paediatric case in Werribee overnight where paramedics requested back-up from a Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) unit.
Because of the outage, dispatchers initially believed the nearest available MICA unit was available in the CBD.
“They later found out that there was a MICA crew available in Deer Park, which is much, much closer, but because the system’s down, they can’t see the nearest crew,” he said.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the outage was being investigated. She was advised that there were no adverse outcomes, but was seeking more information.
“The cause of the power outage is still being investigated,” Allan said.
Opposition spokesperson for emergency services, Danny O’Brien, labelled the system failure a “serious concern”, adding that the government must provide a clear explanation of what caused the incident.
