Liberal Member for Western Victoria, John Vogels, is calling on the State Government to do more to support the ambulance service in country areas such as Stawell.

Mr Vogels said he believed lives were being put at risk because the Brumby Labor Government is forcing paramedics to park emergency ambulances outside the ambulance station, unprotected and out in the elements.

Mr Vogels said Stawell residents waiting for ambulances face lengthy delays because Labor had broken a 2006 election promise to provide adequate undercover parking facilities.

``Ambulance officers are being delayed in turning out ambulances to respond to medical emergencies because they are having to waste minutes clearing ice off windscreens,'' he said.

``Stawell ambulances are being stored outside in unsafe and unprotected conditions which are putting patient's lives at risk.

``Getting the ambulance quickly to the scene of a patient is essential.

``A few lost minutes hosing down windscreens or cooling the interior could be the difference between someone dying or being able to be saved by a trained paramedic.''

Mr Vogels said there were other problems caused by the lack of a suitable garage.

``Thousands of dollars worth of emergency drugs have had to be thrown out because storage temperatures inside the ambulances had become either too hot on summer days or had frozen on very cold winter nights,'' Mr Vogels said.

``When left outside on hot summer days, temperatures inside the ambulance could climb up to 50 degrees when locked and unattended, creating a dangerous environment unsuitable for patients and contrary to medicine storage requirements.

``The ambulances are also sitting ducks just waiting for thieves to break into them when parked outside unattended.

``Imagine the situation if a paramedic turned out responding to an emergency only to find the front windscreen smashed in by thieves.''

Mr Vogels said $360,000 funding had been allocated in the 2007 State Budget to build housing facilities for the Stawell ambulances but the Brumby Government has neglected the issue ever since.

``Labor has taken no action to deliver on this election promise. There has not been a planning permit request to the council, nothing at all,'' Mr Vogels said.