Andrews said recruiting staff "wouldn't be easy", and said the positions would take "months to fill".

The additional specialist staff will include offload nurses to help ambulances offload patients quicker, while triage doctors will be responsible for assessing patients quickly and establishing the level of care that they require.

They will be deployed across 12 hospitals including the Alfred Hospital, University Hospital Geelong, Grampians Health - Ballarat Hospital and Monash Medical Centre.

"These investments are part of our plan to support our healthcare workers and get Victorians the care they need," Andrews said.

"Giving our nurses and doctors an extra pair of hands and making improvements that help patients flow through our emergency departments faster will ensure Victorians get the care they need faster."

Andrews said the state was currently facing a "difficult winter".

"It's a massive problem," he told Today.

"We have BA.4 and 5 (Omicron variants) which is hitting us in the middle of winter," he said.

"Yet again I call on the Victorian Minister for Health to review the decision about the limited range of mask mandates in circumstances where we know there is massive transmission of a highly transmissible virus."

McRae pointed out the new Omicron variants aren't mild, as some people assume.

"It looks like BA.5 is actually a bit more aggressive," he said.

"If you think of the lungs starting from the top and coming down, the BA.4 is kind of in the throat and the top of the larynx but BA.5 is coming down deeper into the lungs along the lines of the original Delta variant.

"A lot of people are very vulnerable with underlying illnesses who are likely to be tapping into hospitals."