September 2009

Ballarat to be ambo communications centre

Ambulance Victoria’s five rural communications centres will be merged into one to provide a more consistent and reliable service for emergency callers.

Funding announced in the State Government Budget in May will create one centre in the Emergency Services Telecommunication Authority (ESTA) facility in Ballarat, replacing the existing operation centres in Bendigo, Geelong, Ballarat, Wangaratta and Morwell.

AV Chief Executive Officer Greg Sassella said the creation of one rural call taking and dispatch centre had been mooted for years and the new centre would be a significant upgrade for ambulance care in regional Victoria.

‘This consolidation has been suggested and discussed for many years and delivers the community an improvement in safety and service.

‘It also provides us with significant improvements and security surrounding the call taking and dispatch process in regional Victoria,’ Mr Sassella said.

‘This new system will see identical technology, policies and procedures in the way ambulances are dispatched no matter the location of the emergency in Victoria.

‘It will mean ambulances can be located by GPS, standardised questioning will be adopted and a robust system will be in place.

‘For Victorians, it doesn’t change the way you call for an ambulance but it does mean the technology and support systems are based on sound foundations, have reliable back-ups and can introduce performance
indicators so that we can respond within consistent and medically-approved guidelines.’

The new centre will be operated by ESTA, which runs the metropolitan call-taking and dispatch centre at Tally Ho and the metropolitan Victoria Police process at the World Trade Centre.

This will bring regional Victoria into line with the whole-of-government approach to emergency service telecommunications with one body managing emergency communications across the state.

This will also mean the introduction of automatic vehicle location, medically-endorsed dispatch, an auditable system, the removal of borders between regions and more robust business continuity.

Mr Sassella said the transition was likely to be on a staggered basis, beginning in mid-2010.