AnnuAl rEPorT - Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority

Third Quarter• Following a storm in February 2008,message volume capacity wasexceeded by some 250%, howeveronly 30 emergency messages weredelayed beyond the specified 30second delivery time.• Metropolitan Police emergency calltaking commenced at the BallaratState Emergency CommunicationsCentre. This activity will assist toalleviate the work load experiencedby ESTA’s World Trade Centreoperators particularly during periodsof peak activity.• ESTA introduced a joint MAS/Country Fire Authority (CFA) pilotprogramme for emergency medicalresponse (EMR).The project provides for the dispatchof six designated CFA brigades topredetermined high acuity MASevents in conjunction with anambulance dispatch. The projectis identical to that in place for theMetropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB).• ESTA participated in the emergencyservice exercise “NEXUS 08”. Thisexercise was a large scale counterterrorism exercise conductedjointly by the State Government ofVictoria and the Commonwealth ofAustralia under the national exerciseprogramme arranged by the NationalCounter Terrorism Committee.• The EAS completed its AlternativeTransmission Links Upgrade resultingin more reliable switchover from theprimary satellite transmission serviceto secondary ‘back-up’ networktransmission services.• As a result of the SAI Global auditin February 08, ESTA maintainedQuality accreditation against the ISO9001:2000 Standard. The outcomeof the audit was very positivehighlighting significant achievementswithin the organisation.