Bendigo paramedics fear some of their best trained colleagues could keep being deployed to trivial medical issues including "sore eyes".
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It has prompted one Bendigo ambo to raise their concerns with the Advertiser.
"If it hasn't already, it'll cost someone their life one day," they said.
"It very well may have already."
The paramedic - who was granted anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly - feared the push to keep some of the highest skilled ambos free for genuine emergencies might never succeed.
'Sore eyes' not a job MICA skills needed for
"Mobile intensive care ambulance" (MICA) paramedics are some of the best trained of any ambos on Australia's roads.
The Victorian Ambulance Union has long campaigned for them to be kept free for "code zero" cases - the worst of the worse jobs like heart attacks - and to help other crews in need.
Union secretary Danny Hill said paramedics across much of Victoria were unclear about when and how the system would be reformed.
"There's been a lack of answers and lots of rumours about whether it will or won't happen," he said.
The Advertiser's source said MICA paramedics might be sent "lights and sirens" to all kinds of jobs that were not genuine emergencies.
That could include patients with abnormal breathing because of backpain, or jaw pain because of a sore tooth.
There were cases of MICA paramedics being sent to people with "sore eyes", which risk averse call takers had triaged as severe allergic reactions, the Bendigo paramedic said.
"The public would be devastated to know we couldn't get to them when they needed us because we were making an appointment for someone or suggesting they visit the chemist to purchase hay fever tablets," they said.
The solution in those cases was not as simple as simply leaving a patient to race to a real emergency.
A MICA paramedic might have to stay with their original patients if no replacement could be found, for example, Mr Hill said.
Ambulance Vic says changes are on way
Ambulance Victoria conceded the call taking system erred on the side of caution but Loddon Mallee region director Matt McCrohan said the service would "continue to look for all opportunities to ensure our paramedics are dispatched to the right patient at the right time".
He encouraged people calling ambulances to give accurate information to help keep MICA paramedics free of patients most in need, and to consider other care options for less-urgent cases.
Executive director of regional operations Danielle North said Ambulance Victoria recently trialed a program in Melbourne to keep more intensive care paramedics for critically ill patients
"We'll continue to review how this model can be best applied and we are progressing with work to soon introduce MICA targeted dispatch in larger regional centres, including Bendigo," she said.
The paramedic the Advertiser spoke to hoped their decision to speak to the media would not be misinterpreted as a tactic to pressure the government during ongoing negotiations over a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
MICA paramedics had been misused long before the latest round of pay negotiations, the source said.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
