A restructure of Victoria's emergency triple zero call service is inevitable, as the state government attempts to shore-up the embattled system following revelations of more fatal delays.
Another $115.6 million is being poured into the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority after it emerged up to 12 people had died recently, while waiting for the service to take calls for an ambulance.
The money will be used to hire more call-takers, management of the workforce, and recruitment and community education campaigns.
The new funding is slated to create 120 new positions, on top of an additional 43 call-takers and $27.5 million allocated in October amid ongoing issues with the service.
The extra 120 staff are expected to be working by mid-2023, although it is hoped 19 will be answering phones before the end of June this year after completing their training.
Calls to ESTA should be answered within five seconds and the government has repeatedly blamed delays on the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to staff absences and increasing deferred care.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said she has spoken to some of the affected families but insists it is too early to attribute the cause of their deaths to "unacceptable" delays.
"That is a matter for the coroner," Ms Symes told reporters on Monday.
"These matters are being investigated by IGEM ( the Inspector-General for Emergency Management)."
Ms Symes said ESTA had maintained its five-second benchmark for 90 per cent of calls but conceded agencies had underestimated surging demand, leaving the service unable to cope.
She said the system has improved since the state's Omicron wave in January.
"I'm not saying it is all okay. We have had unprecedented demand, we have had delays, and we want to make sure that they are no longer," she said.
Stephen Leane, installed as ESTA's interim chief executive last year following the sudden resignation of Marty Smyth, said the service was receiving about 3000 calls a day at the weekend, up from 2000 a day about a year ago.
The former Victoria Police assistant commissioner said there was no quick fix to the ailing system.
"An organisation can't stretch to 50 per cent overnight and the workforce can't stretch or meet those demands through overtime shifts," Mr Leane said.
A previously flagged review of the service by former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton is due in June.
Despite the report not yet being finalised, Ms Symes agreed a restructure of ESTA was inevitable.
One in five calls to ESTA currently do not result in an ambulance being deployed and Victorians are again being urged to save triple zero calls for emergencies only.
People struggling to get through have also been told not to hang up and call back as they will automatically go to the end of the queue.
Ms Symes said she did not want families to go through the same experience as those who have lost loved ones.
Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin said the government could not shift blame for the system's failures on to the pandemic and its staff recruitment timeline was too slow.
"That means Victorians are on hold for another 15 months because the Andrews Labor government failed to invest when they needed to at the start or before COVID," he said.
