With increasing calls for assistance in the shire, the decision has been made for Daylesford's Ambulance Victoria branch to be staffed 24 hours a day and it is anticipated that there will be a number of benefits.

Regional Director for the Grampians Region, Tim Maywald, said the workload had been steadily increasing in Daylesford for quite some time.

"It's a growth area that's close to Melbourne and popular as a weekend holiday destination," he said.

Last year was a busy one for emergency services. From bushfires to the COVID-19 pandemic, extra pressure was put on the state's healthcare system. But it was during the last quarter of 2020 that paramedics noticed a real spike in demand.

"Since the easing of COVID restrictions, there has been some pent-up demand because people were reluctant to seek medical treatment during the pandemic," Mr Maywald said, adding it had contributed to further increased workloads.

"We don't think that will ease up all that much in 2021 so this is all about making sure that we continue to meet the demand in the community."

IN OTHER NEWS

The decision to convert the Daylesford branch to operating 24 hours has been a long time coming and will improve efficiency.

While staffed during the day, for many years a paramedic has been on-call to respond to an incident when required overnight. Mr Maywald said this could cause paramedics to become fatigued during busy periods.

Becoming a 24 hour branch, the number of paramedics working there will be boosted to about 14.

"By making it 24-hour means that we will get extra paramedics assigned to that branch to share the workload," he said.

The significant boost in numbers will also mean that the initial response will always be two paramedics-whether during the day or at night.

With paramedics prepped to respond to an incident from the ambulance station rather than turning out from home, Mr Maywald said it was also expected that there would be an improvement in response times in the Hepburn Shire.

Meanwhile, 77 graduate paramedics will also be recruited to fill rural and regional vacancies.

Some of these graduates (an exact number is not yet known) will be recruited in the wider Grampians region, including in the Ballarat branches and at Ararat, Stawell and Horsham.

Aside from paramedics at the Daylesford branch, there are additional resources in the Hepburn Shire: two paramedics who work from Creswick in the afternoons and a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Trentham.

Mr Maywald said the boost was "absolutely fantastic news" for the Grampians Region.

"The overall increase in our paramedic numbers means it takes the pressure off our paramedics who have been working pretty hard for the past 12 months and are feeling a bit fatigued.

"Having an increase in our overall total staff numbers is an excellent thing for the region and certainly means we will provide a better service across the board."

It comes after a $14.8 million funding injection to increase ambulance services and improve access to care across the state was announced on Friday.

Ambulance Victoria Chief Executive, Associate Professor Tony Walker, said the announcement was a win-win, both for the organisation and the community.

"This funding will enable us to bring forward several initiatives slated for 2022/23 to this year and target additional resources to areas where they will have the greatest impact on our service performance."

As part of the announcement, Associate Professor Walker said staff who had been assisting the Department of Health and Human Services with contact tracing and other work would be returning to their frontline duties to deliver patient care.

Victoria Ambulance Union General Secretary Danny Hill said he was very pleased with the new investment which will be targeted to rural centres.