Victoria boosts ambulance triage funding to ease emergency pressure

The Government of Victoria is providing a $50.7 million boost to Ambulance Victoria (AV) in the 2026/27 Budget to improve emergency medical services and relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments.

This funding is intended to help Victorians access appropriate medical care more quickly, while enabling more paramedics to return to frontline duties sooner.

Meanwhile, the government will allocate an additional $28.6 million to strengthen AV’s expanded Secondary Triage team. The aim is to free up resources for Triple Zero (000) call takers and ambulances, ensuring that the most seriously ill patients receive an emergency response.

This service, staffed by paramedics, nurses, and mental health specialists, handles almost 20% of daily Triple Zero calls in Victoria and provides appropriate care for patients who do not require an ambulance.

A further $9.7 million will be used to improve triage, review, and classification processes at Victoria’s emergency call centre, ensuring ambulances are dispatched immediately in life-threatening situations.

The government will also invest an additional $2 million to support AV’s clinical triage team in assisting individuals who frequently call 000 for non-urgent matters. This includes conducting welfare checks, connecting them to services such as Virtual ED or Urgent Care Clinics, and arranging alternative transport when it is safe to do so.

In addition, to improve ambulance transfer times during peak hours, the government will invest $10 million in an existing pilot program. By increasing staffing, equipment, and space in emergency departments, multiple ambulances will be able to hand over patients simultaneously, helping paramedics return to the road more quickly.

“Victoria’s Code 1 ambulance response times are continuing to improve and are now among the fastest in Australia, but there’s always more to do,” said Harriet Shing.

She added that the government is working to ensure that Victoria’s most critically ill patients receive the emergency care they need, when they need it.

Source：https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/faster-emergency-care-victorians