The head of Victoria's ambulance union has said he is not surprised by the "terrifying" results of a new report that suggest 1000 patients may have been harmed by triple zero delays.
Leaked documents from the report suggest that 1000 people, including very ill children and heart attack-sufferers, could have been harmed by the call-taking crisis at the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA), as revealed by The Age.
The 1000 people outlined in the report come on top of the 18 deaths already linked to ambulance calls taking too long to be answered.
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Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill has said the results of the report have not come as a shock to him.
"These numbers don't surprise us at all - but they are terrifying," he told Today.
"They show mainly throughout 2021, but also into this year, we did have a large number of patients who could have been affected, with situations where they've dialed 000 under immediate life threat.
"They required ambulance lights and sirens but they were unable to get through.
"Throughout that time it was terrifying for people calling an ambulance.
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"We had people waiting 15, 20, 30 minutes to get through for a really life-threatening scenario.
"It could potentially have had life and death consequences."
Hill said the problems suggested by the report were specifically related to understaffing at the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA),
"This is separate to the broader issues the health system," he said.
Hill said lack of staff at ESTA for years meant it "was never ready for an event like COVID".
However, he said staffing levels had now increased, leading to call taking time improving significantly.
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