Media Release | 3 June 2025
Libby Mettam
Shadow Health Minister
As winter begins, and Western Australian hospitals commence their busiest time, emergency departments have recorded their highest ever May ambulance ramping figures.
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said the May figures showed WA’s emergency departments were being set up for failure by the Cook Labor Government.
“Ramping means not only are patients in the back of ambulances forced to wait to access an emergency department, but people in the community requiring an ambulance are forced to wait while ambulances are lined up outside a hospital,” she said.
“There can be no doubt that once the coming flu season starts – and this season is predicted to be dire – our emergency departments are going to be under enormous pressure.”
Last month, ambulances were ramped outside WA emergency departments for a total of 5333 hours. The previous highest May on record was 5130 in May 2022 on the tail of the Covid pandemic.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners recently reported the number of confirmed flu cases across Australia in the first three months of 2025 was 59 per cent higher than at the same time last year and vaccination rates were historically low.
The Australian Medical Association is also concerned that the most recent flu season in the norther hemisphere – where some UK hospitals were overwhelmed, and the US recorded the largest flu season since the 2009 swine flu pandemic – will be replicated in Australia.
Ms Mettam said that while the Cook Government continued to pump out spin about how much it was spending in health, WA’s hospitals were slipping closer and closer to catastrophe.
“In 2022, when ambulance ramping peaked at its previous May record, the McGowan Labor Government promised a $252 million package to ‘improve access to emergency care and address the systemic causes of ambulance ramping’,” she said.
“Three years later, that money has been spent but ambulance ramping is worse.
Meanwhile Premier Cook and Minister Hammat tell us they are so proud of their government’s achievements in health administration.
“Last week we saw the release of the March Quarterly Financial Results Report and it showed once again the State Government was flush with money, spending more than ever, but on the wrong priorities.
“Spending on hospitals and schools is dwarfed by the Treasurer’s obsession with delivering Metronet at any cost – $10 billion over budget already – while ambulance ramping and the health crisis continues.
“If the minister actually has a plan to reduce ramping, before the flu season further impacts our EDs, I challenge her to tell us what it is.”
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT: Graham Mason | 0419 194 792
