REGIONAL Victoria has been promised more than 200 new ambulance paramedics - if the Coalition wins the next election.

According to Coalition leader Ted Baillieu they will be part of a total of 340 new paramedics and patient transport officers - which would be the largest single increase in ambulance staff.

He said the Coalition would work with Ambulance Victoria, communities and paramedics to allocate the new officers to areas of the state with the greatest clinical need.

They include:

  • Barwon South West: 44 paramedics and six patient transport officers.
  • Grampians: 43 paramedics and six patient transport officers.
  • Loddon Mallee: 43 paramedics and six patient transport officers.
  • Hume: 40 paramedics and six patient transport officers.
  • Gippsland: 40 paramedics and six patient transport officers.

The Coalition also pledged to recruit an additional 30 patient transport officers across regional Victoria.

Last month a man who lived less than one block from the Maryborough ambulance station died after waiting more than 38 minutes for an ambulance.

In the same month a five-year-old Gippsland boy died after waiting more than an hour for a specialist MICA response unit.