Ambulance Victoria overloaded with 'non-urgent' patients due to heatwave

Ambulance Victoria has been forced to warn the state's residents only to call Triple-Zero if there is an emergency after the service was overloaded with non-urgent patients last night.

More than 2000 calls were made to Triple-Zero for ambulances services, with just over half of those being people in life-threatening danger.

Ambulance Victoria tweeted an emergency alert just before 9pm last night, asking for non-urgent patients to call the nurse on call.

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Emergency patients received timely care, while there were delays for those non-critical.

A heatwave is believed to have contributed to the increase in callouts, before services returned to normal just after 12.30am.

A spokesperson for the service said all Victorians who were critically unwell received care, however those without a life-threatening illness experienced longer wait times than usual.

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"Our priority is to ensure we have adequate resources for Code 1 patients who require a lights and sirens urgent response," the spokesperson said.

"These patients are categorised as the sickest Victorians who require urgent lifesaving care.

"This is a timely reminder to all Victorians to stay on top of their health this summer as the weather warms up and many of us re-emerge from Stage 3 and 4 restrictions."