Ballarat emergency control centre closes on AFL Grand Final night

The Victorian Ambulance Union (VAU) warned that under staffing at the centre, based out of the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) building, risked placing paramedics in dangerous situations without co-ordinated support from police, the CFA or SES.

Ambulance Victoria acting executive director for operational communications Danielle North confirmed to ACM "Ambulance Victoria had planned for increased resourcing in our Ballarat Communications Centre on Saturday night but, unfortunately, we were impacted by personal leave".

"When there are unexpected short-term vacancies, we work to backfill these by offering them to other employees on overtime," she said.

"Our regional and metropolitan communications centres work in tandem, and on Saturday night call taking and dispatch for regional Victoria was supported through our metropolitan centre to ensure no impact on service delivery," Ms North said.

VAU secretary Danny Hill said emergency control centres are "vital because they're almost like our flight air traffic controllers, they control every ambulance resource in rural Victoria,"

"They help our crews when it comes to getting vital information prior to arrival at cases about things like occupational violence hazards," Mr Hill said.

Victorian ambulances resources are handled through two control rooms, one in Ballarat that manages rural Victoria and another in Melbourne that manages metropolitan resources.

On September 30, "every emergency had to be handled out of the metropolitan control room, they took over coordination of the entire state," Mr Hill said.

That was an "enormous" workload for one control room, he said.

"By all accounts the community was well-behaved and the workload didn't have spikes [that] we've seen in previous years," he said.

"But Grand Final is almost always the busiest night of the year."

On an average Saturday night at the Ballarat State Emergency Control Centre (BalSECC) staffing would include up to two duty managers, up to three communication support paramedics, two clinicians and a number of administration support officers, Mr Hill said.

"While you have crews dispatched by Emergency Service Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) it's the duty managers and communication support paramedics that help to coordinate and make sure you get the best resourcing of our crews."

According to VAU, the duty managers and admin support officers finished work at 9pm on September 30 and the roles remained unstaffed until 7am on October 1.

The VAU said two clinicians remained throughout the night but the centre was closed.

"It's the first time we've seen this in many, many years," Mr Hill said.

"It's terrifying it's getting to this level."

Mr Hill said a "safe minimum" of staff should be on at all times.

"There's been lots of recruitment for paramedics on road but there hasn't been anywhere near enough staff put into the control centres," he said.

Ms North said "we are extremely grateful for the team effort of our people in our communications centres, and our paramedics on the road, during a traditionally busy night for ambulance services".

The Victorian Department of Health was contacted for comment but did not respond by presstime.

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