We raised awareness of the Ambulance service being for time-critical, life-threatening emergencies and inspired Victorians to reduce the number of non-emergency calls to 000 and increase consideration and use for non-urgent options – GP, Pharmacist, Nurse On Call.

Victorians were making approximately 100,000 calls a year to 000 requesting an ambulance for non-emergencies.

The approach

Working in collaboration with BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA) we:

• Conducted a Literature & Practice Review – gathered information, research, papers etc from around the world relating to campaigns and programs.
• One on one consultation interviews – with experts in the field.

Consolidated this into a briefing document provide to everyone attending a Stakeholder Dialogues Forum.

• The stakeholder dialogue was attended by 18 senior people representing the Victorian Government, Ambulance Victoria, hospitals, non-emergency health service providers, AMA, RACGP,  telecommunications authorities (000 calls), media strategy, and communications and behavioural researchers. The forum is conducted under Chatham House rules.

Following deliberation on the precirculated information from evidence and practice, it was determined in the dialogue to pursue a long-term behaviour change approach, initially focusing on antecedents to behaviour change.

We sensitised the community to understand Ambulances were for time-critical, life-threatening emergencies and educated and inspired them to use GPs, Pharmacists and Nurse On Call for non-emergencies.