01-08-2025
Emergency department doctor says bad flu season not to blame for record ambulance ramping in WA
A senior emergency department physician says there is no basis to the WA government's claims a worse than average flu season is contributing to record high ambulance ramping hours.
Figures from St John show ambulances spent more than 7,000 hours waiting outside WA's emergency departments in July, unable to transfer patients.
It amounts to an average of 225 hours a day and surpasses the previous peak in August 2022 when ramping hours were close to 6,950.
The government says an ageing population is one factor for the increase and has also pointed to higher influenza cases as a contributor.
But Dr Peter Allely from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine told ABC Radio Perth the problems were structural and much deeper than a bad flu season.
"It's worse than it has been, but it's not unexpected that you'll get fluctuations in the number of flu patients from year to year," Dr Allely said.
Australian Medical Association WA president Dr Kyle Hoath said innovative solutions were needed.
"Is there an option for the government to open and run their own aged care facility, to try and have some control over that process?," he queried.
"We know that every hospital bed in the private sector, that every new medi-hotel that's being built, are not full. There are beds there that could be used as hospital beds. We need to take advantage of that."
WA Health Minister Meredith Hammatt said the latest figures were disappointing but was adamant the government was doing all it could.
"We are attacking this from every angle," she said.
"We've delivered over 900 beds to the hospital system since 2021. We've increased staff by 30 per cent and we're looking at innovative ways that we can deliver care closer to home, where people live."
Ms Hammatt said she expected a number of initiatives, already in place, would have an impact.
"We're looking at all the ways that we can make a difference throughout a whole patients journey through the system, from when they first think that they may need an ambulance, right through to the point of discharge," she said.
"And particularly for our older West Australians, making sure they've got appropriate care that they can access.
"That's why we've done things like stood up the WA virtual emergency department, that's why we've made sure we've got a central point of coordination for ambulances through the state.
"That's why we're going to deliver older adult health hubs for older West Australians and we have an election commitment to ensure that there are low interest loans available to do more aged care in WA.
"And of course, we want the federal government to do more to ensure that there's aged care available for older West Australians."
Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas called on Premier Roger Cook to make ambulance ramping his top priority.
"They have waved the white flag," he said.
"Nine years to fix it. In nine years, it's gone from 1,000 hours of ramping to a record of 7,000 hours of ambulance ramping."
