The trend has prompted some paramedics and doctors to call for the public to be educated about what ambulances should be used for as new data shows the number of urgent "code 1" calls not being reached within 15 minutes has doubled from about 41,000 or 18 per cent of such calls in 2007-08 to nearly 85,000 or 26 per cent last year. Code 1 calls include car accidents and people having heart attacks, strokes or asthma attacks. Last year, Ambulance Victoria diverted more than 55,000 non-urgent callers to its "referral service" where paramedics and nurses ask more questions before an ambulance is dispatched. In 2011-12, the service managed about 48,000 calls. Most of these callers were referred to GPs or other services such as dentists, pharmacists or psychiatric crisis assessment teams, for example. If they can be driven to hospital, they may also be advised to transport themselves rather than get an ambulance. The data comes as Ambulance Victoria's latest strategy reveals its plans to increase the number of calls it diverts to other health services every year to try and free up paramedics for the most urgent cases. This financial year, it is predicting 70,000 calls will be managed by its referral service.

Despite the Coalition government funding close to 700 new paramedics in four years, Ambulance Victoria's "revised operating model" says its ability to provide an appropriate and timely response to medical emergencies has continued to deteriorate. In a bid to speed up its crews, it is also about to trial a program for paramedics to hand patients over to their telephone referral service if they decide they do not need to be taken to hospital. Up until now, paramedics have been obliged to take someone to hospital if they insist on it. Emergency doctors said ambulances were also transporting many elderly people to hospital when they do not need emergency treatment and would be better cared for elsewhere. Dr Simon Judkins, a spokesman for the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, said this included people who needed catheters or naso-gastric tubes adjusted and those who are dying and do not want to be resuscitated. "There is a huge number of elderly people who are dying in hospital wards when they should be at home or in aged care facilities with people who know them," he said. Professor of Emergency Medicine at Monash University Peter Cameron said more work needed to be done to build up appropriate alternatives for these people so they do not end up in ambulances or hospitals unnecessarily. Families should also be thinking ahead about what they can do for their loves ones, he said.

"In my mind, the ambulance service is most important to attend emergencies where attendance of a paramedic will make a difference. But we've got a situation now where we have these highly trained people with university degrees who are acting as transport officers," he said. Jo Gibbs, whose 23-year-old son Matthew died last year after waiting 16 minutes for an ambulance, said Ambulance Victoria should follow other jurisdictions such as NSW and run a television campaign educating people about inappropriate calls for help. But Mr Sassella said such campaigns could be dangerous because they may deter people from calling an ambulance when they actually need one.