Victoria's ESTA gets mixed report card from Auditor-General

An audit by Victoria’s Auditor-General has found that the state’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) dispatch system is working well in most respects but still has issues to solve.

The audit assessed how ICT systems and processes are used to deliver an emergency service response.

ESTA takes calls from the public for emergency assistance and dispatches emergency service resources to an incident. The body’s performance is measured against Inspector-General for Emergency Management-determined standards.

The audit found that when all systems are working, ESTA is meeting call-taking standards but is consistently failing to meet its emergency ambulance dispatch standards.

It found that when the computer-aided dispatch system fails, the backup manual card-based process is inadequate.

The audit also found that, except for the StateNet Mobile Radio rural communications network, radio systems are modern with up-to-date technology. However, police channels on the Metropolitan Mobile Radio network can become congested at peak times and when Protective Service Officers are on duty at railway stations.

Other findings are:

• A modern data network is installed in all metropolitan ambulances, but only in 30% of operational police vehicles.
• The new digital radio network for the Country Fire Authority is operating satisfactorily, but should be extended to all other emergency service organisations to overcome the limitations of the analog rural network.

The full report can be downloaded from the Auditor-General’s website, or you can watch the following presentation: