Triple Zero dispatchers forced to use pen and paper during hours-long outage

Victorians calling Triple Zero for help faced delays reaching emergency call takers after the state’s ageing computer-aided dispatch system went into meltdown for several hours on Wednesday morning.

People calling for ambulance, police or firefighters faced extended waits of up to 20 minutes as a result of the outage, according to operational and union sources.

While Triple Zero Victoria insisted that calls from the community continued to be answered, union officials said the disruption posed major operational challenges, as call takers and dispatchers were forced to rely on pen and paper to co-ordinate responses.

They said staff at one centre had to temporarily use handheld walkie-talkies because the radio system wasn’t working.

The latest outage follows one last November and comes as concerns rise about Triple Zero Victoria’s performance. Dozens of jobs were recently cut from the essential service, while call waiting times have climbed to their highest levels since the end of the pandemic.

Triple Zero calls from across Australia are first answered by Telstra call takers, who then transfer callers to the state services in charge of fire, ambulance or police dispatch.

One of the Telstra call takers working during Wednesday’s Triple Zero Victoria outage said that soon after midnight they were hit by delays of more than 10 minutes connecting Victorian emergency callers seeking police or ambulance assistance.

“These lines weren’t picking up, or they were playing music, or there was just silence,” the call taker said. “And then when you did get a line, it was ringing out.”

The call taker, speaking anonymously in order to detail what they knew, said they had faced initial delays connecting to a Triple Zero Victoria’s phone line, and then encountered further delays for that call to be answered.

They estimated about a dozen calls they received from Victoria were affected by delays – of between a few minutes and at least 10 minutes – during the outage.

The computer system outage was caused by a failure of the back-up power system at Triple Zero Victoria’s Burwood centre. The outage began at 12.30am and lasted until about 4am.

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said he had also been told there were delays of up to 20 minutes when emergency calls were unable to be connected via Telstra to Triple Zero Victoria.

Hill said that when the computer system was down, call takers were forced to manually write down all incident information, which was then 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.”

Triple Zero Victoria would not comment on the extent of any connection delays experienced by the public.

“Usual back-up measures were enacted to minimise impact to the community until [computer-aided dispatch] resumed normal operations, and the cause of the power issue is being investigated,” a spokesperson said.

Emergency Services Minister Vicki Ward said a back-up power system should have taken over during the outage.

“We don’t know why it didn’t. We are investigating that,” she said. “It’s never happened before.”

Ward said she was advised that all calls to Triple Zero had gone through during the outage and that the call and dispatch system had been incrementally brought online.

Three internal and union sources not authorised to speak publicly said that the power failure was related to the uninterruptible power supply system at the Burwood centre.

“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.”

On Wednesday morning, Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery, who was appointed in May, said that despite the outage, there were “no specific patient safety events reported at this time”.

A new computer-aided dispatch system, known as OnCallCAD, is being developed by Triple Zero Victoria. The old system crashes regularly, and staff have warned that the next outage is a matter of when, not if.

John Ellery, a Communications Workers Union assistant secretary, said that the dispatchers working at the time of the outage had been “absolutely overloaded”.

“And so at 1.30am this morning, Triple Zero started dragging in people because they didn’t have enough staff,” he said. “They recalled staff in the middle of the night [because] the people manning the shifts couldn’t cope with the manual arrangements.

“The Labor Party has really made a mess of Triple Zero Victoria by squeezing funding, despite what they’re saying. They have made cuts and knocked off all of these trainers in their support area.

“The government has been told a story that it won’t affect the operational side of Triple Zero Victoria – I call bullshit on that.”

Premier Jacinta Allan said the outage was being investigated. She was advised that there were no adverse outcomes, but was seeking more information.

Opposition emergency services spokesperson Danny O’Brien called the system failure a serious concern, and said the government must provide a clear explanation of what caused the incident.

A Telstra spokesman said the agency worked closely with Triple Zero Victoria to manage the transfer of calls.  He wouldn’t comment on the reports of transfer delays.

“There were no issues with the Telstra network or Telstra’s Triple Zero call taking service, ” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.