It found that Tasmanians were calling triple zero for toothaches, common colds, medication deliveries and even to assess sick pets.

The report recommended moving to a secondary triage service where a triple zero call centre could direct non-acute patients to other providers, such as those offering primary care.

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Last month this service was launched in Tasmania, and as of March 10, a total of 273 calls had been referred into secondary triage.

Of these, 63 resulted in other response pathways including: connecting with an alternative service provider, or referring to their own GP; sending other appropriate Ambulance Tasmania resources, such as one of the extended care paramedics; or providing self-care advice for safe treatment in their own home.

The service is expected to assess about 22,000 triple zero calls a year, with the potential of diverting up to 16,000 patients to alternate service providers.

But how does it work and what does it mean for Tasmanians seeking care? The Examiner caught up with the woman leading the service to find out.

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Samantha Allender is the project manager for secondary triage with Ambulance Tasmania.

With 11 years' experience working in secondary triage with Ambulance Victoria, she said when the opportunity to help implement the system here in Tasmania came - she jumped at it.

"I found myself in a position where I could provide that support, having worked in the secondary triage space over there [Victoria] since 2010, and having worked at all levels - from the clinician call taker all the way through to the management areas," she said.

"So having a good depth of understanding of what secondary triage is all about, but also understanding the benefits of it and how we can ensure everyone gets the right care, at the right time."

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Secondary triage is a system for responding to triple zero calls, where paramedics and nurses speak directly with patients to connect them to the appropriate service.

Already used widely interstate and overseas, the system is designed to ensure patients receive the right care straight away, with the knowledge that not every call requires a paramedic-led response.

As Ms Allender explained, it's about making a priority assessment and responding to it accordingly.

"We know when people call triple zero, they don't always require an emergency ambulance," she said.

"This is sort of a theme that has been coming up for ambulance services internationally. That there has been an increase in these lower acuity cases coming through to emergency ambulance calls, that would generally be able to be managed in the community, if we can actually put those pathways back in place."

When a person calls triple zero, they will always be asked if they require police, fire or ambulance services. Once a person is connected to Ambulance Tasmania's state operation centre, this is when a patient will go through primary triage.

"That is an algorithm-based system as well, where the call taker - the emergency medical dispatch support officer - will ask a series of questions and get a 'yes, no' response to them," Ms Allender explained.

"So things like 'is the patient breathing, is the patient bleeding, is the patient conscious, can they talk'. They go through that system, which is used in about 3500 ambulance services worldwide.

"But ultimately from that initial call taking, the only available response before the implementation of secondary triage was to send an emergency ambulance with paramedics to assess that complaint."

Ms Allender said over the past 18 months, Ambulance Tasmania had been assessing the different case types that come through its call centre to establish which ones were safe to be diverted to other pathways. Once that is assessed, it is flagged in the primary triage system.

"That primary call taker is very well trained, but is not a clinician - they don't have that clinical or medical background, so they don't make the decision about what has been put through," she said.

"The decision is made by the system and by the ambulance clinical governance committee, saying these are the cases that are suitable for secondary triage.

"When that happens, it is alerted in the system and the secondary triage clinical - which is either a nurse or a paramedic with at least four years of post qualification experience - is then available to triage that case."

Tasmania has become the third ambulance service within Australia to implement a secondary triage service.

A similar system has been operational in Victoria for almost 20 years, with South Australia also coming online with its own secondary triage service last year.

Ms Allender said in her experience the Victorian service was able to demonstrate significantly improved emergency response times - particularly for high priority cases.

"They [Victoria] have also had the highest out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates, as determined through having emergency ambulances more available to respond in a more timely way to those cases," she said.

Secondary triage was launched in Tasmania on February 22 and Ms Allender said so far the feedback had been overwhelmingly positive - for both clinicians answering the calls, and the paramedics out on the road.

"Our clinicians are really pleased that they are being able to provide the right care, for those patients, when they need it. Our staff on the road are also indicating that they are also feeling positive about it," she said.

"That's another thing that AV noted, in terms of the morale of paramedics increasing over the rollout of secondary triage over there [Victoria].

"Because most of them get in the job to help those significantly unwell patients. Not that they discount the other ones, but obviously that impact can be more beneficial for those higher acuity cases."

In launching the service, Health Minister Sarah Courtney said paramedics and nurses would continue to speak directly to patients when a call comes in.

Further, emergency calls requiring an ambulance response will continue to have an ambulance dispatched.

However, secondary triage is designed to allow Ambulance Tasmania to maximise the availability of ambulances and paramedics for genuine emergency situations.

Ms Allender said Tasmanians should feel confident that their calls will always be answered.

"We always understand that in these situations, people are full of high emotion, concern and anxiety. We don't want people to feel bad about calling the ambulance," she said.

"We are happy to take your call if you have concerns, and we will then determine what happens next - if it is that an ambulance will attend, by all means that is always going to happen.

"But if an ambulance isn't needed because the clinician has been able to have a really thorough clinical assessment of that patient over the phone, then we can actually ensure we get the right care for them, by an alternative."

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