Deputy Victorian Premier Ben Carroll has again reminded Victorians to save Triple Zero calls for emergencies after the emergency call and dispatch service failed to meet a key benchmark.
Triple Zero Victoria (TZV) aims to 'action' ambulance dispatches for a Code 1 emergency within 2.5 minutes at least 90 per cent of the time.
But the service only achieved this for 80 per cent of the most urgent emergencies in the 2024-2025 period.
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TZV has pointed out "longstanding structural issues" with the methodology behind the performance and said the target has not been reached since 2010.
The call-and-dispatch service received more than three million calls last year, an average of 8500 each day.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll came to the defense of the agency and urged Victorians be considerate when calling Triple Zero.
"Sadly there are way too many calls that are nuisance calls, that are unwarranted calls," Carroll said.
"We've all got a role to play in making sure that we do not do any unwarranted calls or even worse, nuisance calls to Triple Zero that tie up resources and simply waste taxpayers funds."
In February 2025, TZV received almost 500 nuisance calls in a 24-hour period, according to the annual report.
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"When you look at more than three million calls a year, you see the workload of Triple Zero, They do an outstanding job. That's why they've had more funding, more resources and more staffing," Carroll said.
"We're continuing to make sure they're fully staffed, we're doing everything we can to make sure they're responding, and they are, but we've all got a role to play in making sure Triple Zero is there for emergencies."
TZV cited a constrained Ambulance fleet and operational capacity as part of the reason it failed to meet the target, according to the annual report.
The report also said performance data was skewed due to cases where patients who were initially triaged as lower-priority were escalated to Code 1.
In December 2024, a record-breaking 95,374 calls were made to TZV.
"The most consistent demand driver is Victoria's growing and ageing population; the over 80s age group account for more than 20 per cent of ambulance activity," the annual report read.
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The release of the annual report comes as healthcare workers across the state remain embroiled in a bitter pay dispute with the government.
More than 10,000 workers from more than 80 healthcare services walked off the job yesterday in a Health Worker's Union-led strike that caused thousands of elective surgeries to be cancelled.
Workers are seeking a six per cent wage increase in a dispute Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas today said the government was "really focused on resolving".
"I have met with the union, we're working hard right now to resolve the dispute," Thomas said.
"I look forward to us being able to do that and getting in place a fair EBA for the hard-working members of the HWU."
The union has rejected two wage offers from the government since August 2024, which it claimed were both "below-inflation" increases.
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