Public system 'still under strain despite lower ambulance ramping'

Dr Kyle Hoath said the number of hours ambulances spent outside WA hospitals waiting to handover patients remained unacceptable.

Latest St John WA data show ambulances were ramped outside of WA hospitals for a total of 6603 hours in August.

While it is a drop from the 7058 hours recorded at the same time in 2025, and the 7267 recorded in September when the health system faced enough strain to force the cancellation of some surgeries, Dr Hoath warned efforts to support the public health system still had some way to go.

“There’s nothing good about 6600 hours of ramping,” he said.

“6600 is unacceptable. We have seen the start of some of the changes having a positive impact, but I'd stress to the government that the job's not done, we're not at a point where we can now relax that we've solved our hospital problem.

“There's still a lot more investment needed in staffing, in facilities, in the way that we operate our health sector before we even get close to clearing ourselves of this crisis.”

A major contributing factor to ramping hours is that more than 420 hospital beds in WA are currently occupied by elderly patients awaiting aged care beds that have not yet become available.

Dr Hoath said this was the equivalent of an entire outer suburban hospital, adding the issue would only get worse if not properly addressed.

“We knew that as Australia's population aged, we would eventually run into this problem,” he said.

“The fact that we find ourselves flat-footed and unprepared for it is an issue that we can be upset about, but realistically, we now need to look at what our solutions are.

“We have to adequately find a way of getting people into nursing home care or into proper accommodation.”

He blamed the federal government for “dropping the ball” when it comes to caring for older Australians.

“We didn't see those aged care numbers drop over summer and I think that should have been the big alarm bell to us because, as we hit winter and as we get a bad run of the flu, we see that this number can spike up pretty quickly,” Dr Hoath said.

Perth media outlets have reported cases of people waiting extended periods at emergency departments - in one case waiting 15 hours to be seen.

Medical Forum understands that in some emergency departments patients are being turned away due to lengthy wait times, including an elderly patient with a broken bone.

Dr Hoath said patients waiting longer in the ED may offset ramping hours, but it shifts the problem elsewhere.

“We can't get people seen because we don't have enough doctors, because our hospitals aren't big enough to look after all these people, our health system is not big enough for our state.”

The State Opposition said  the latest ramping data was alarming given WA recorded 60% fewer flu cases than the same time last year.

Opposition health spokesperson Libby Mettam said the government could no longer blame seasonal pressures for a crisis that she said had become entrenched.

“More than one in 10 patients are spending longer than 12 hours in emergency departments waiting for admission or discharge, while semi-urgent patients are regularly facing waits of 10 hours or more."

"The government’s winter strategy contained no numerical target to reduce ramping, no benchmark for improvement and no timeframe for when West Australians can expect things to get better.”

Health Minister Meredith Hammat said the WA government was investing heavily to improve timely access to emergency care, however she acknowledged demand was increasing.

"In the first three weeks of August our hospitals responded to a 6% increase in ambulance arrivals compared to the same time last year, that's more than 860 additional ambulance presentations," she said.

"There was also a 2.3% increase in total ED attendances, and a significant 8.2% increase in patients triaged in categories one and two." 

New hospital, more capacity?

In the last week of August, the new St John of God Midland Private Hospital officially opened.

As part of the opening, 60 beds from the pre-existing St John of God Midland campus were transitioned into Was public system.

 The new standalone St John of God Midland Private Hospital is a 123-bed facility. While the addition of new beds in both the public and private sector was welcome, Dr Hoath said they should not be regarded as the complete answer to healthcare demand in Perth’s eastern suburbs.

“Health services are more than buildings and beds. They must be supported by the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals needed to operate them safely and effectively.”