![\"Ambulances](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/e575914518b6817c2e01e9e05643a24a0ba8ccbc-4x3-x222y0w3556h2667.jpg\")
Camera IconAmbulances response times are at an alarming low. Credit: Riley Churchman\/The West Australian<\/p>\nRoger Cook has been branded as \u201ctotally out of touch\u201d after he claimed WA\u2019s health system is performing well despite ambulance response times falling to alarming lows.<\/p>\n
St John WA blamed a \u201csharp spike in influenza-like illness\u201d for only reaching 72.8 per cent of triple-0 calls within 15 minutes on Monday, with less than 50 per cent of priority two and three calls attended within recommended time frames.<\/p>\n
The Premier on Wednesday rejected claims the situation is proof there is no room for hospitals to cope with the annual winter surge. He also suggested spare capacity would not be an efficient use of money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make sure that we deploy taxpayer funds in an efficient manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you don\u2019t want to have too much extra capacity, you don\u2019t want to have too little extra capacity. It\u2019s a matter of balance when you come into these seasons, particularly around influenza, particularly when it\u2019s a bad season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system gets under pressure but it\u2019s performing well and we\u2019ll obviously get through the flu season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments sparked a swift response from the new head of the Australian Medical Association, Kyle Hoath, who warned hospitals are all-but full.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t keep patching holes and hoping for the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, our health system is functional but extremely fragile. Ramping and bed block are not signs of an efficient system, they\u2019re clear warnings that the system is stretched to breaking point.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperating at or near 100% capacity may look \u201cefficient\u201d on paper, but in practice it means there is no buffer when predictable surges like flu season hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said extra hospital capacity should be a Budget priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Premier is totally out of touch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Hospitals are dealing with record levels of bed block and ramping, the Premier is penny pinching to pay for a racetrack and a rugby team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s safe to assume the people of WA would rather see excess hospital capacity than lives lost because we can\u2019t treat people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wait times for non-urgent patients ballooned out to an average of nine hours at the Sir Charles Gairdner emergency department on Monday.<\/p>\n
Less than 45 per cent of patients were transferred from the care of St John crews to the ED within 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
A North Metro Health spokeswoman said SCGH expected \u201cincrease in demand during peak winter season, including in the emergency department\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an emergency department, patients are always seen and treated in order of clinical urgency,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, this means that some patients requiring non-urgent care may need to wait longer in holding areas until clinical treatment spaces become available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconAmbulances response times are at an alarming low. Credit: Riley Churchman\/The West Australian<\/p>\n
One senior doctor has told The West Australian there is no spare capacity in hospitals, aged care or GP\u2019s and that the system is in a \u201cdeath spiral\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are definitely losing lives if you\u2019re not meeting those targets,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Mr Cook blamed a \u201ctough year\u201d but denied current response times were proof the targets are ineffective.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want governments to have targets, we want them to be stretch targets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we just met all our targets at a canter you\u2019d be saying why aren\u2019t you trying harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Premier said overall ambulance response rates have improved since a parliamentary inquiry in 2021 warned that services were in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
A new five-year contract was awarded in 2022, embedding key performance indicators and potential abatements, or penalties, if they are missed but questions about whether any abatements have been issued went unanswered on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of health works closely with St John WA to monitor performance and improve ambulance availability to the community,\u201d a WA Health spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response times on SJWA\u2019s website for (Monday) indicate increased demand in the community, in this time where we are seeing rising winter season illnesses and general fluctuations in demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur State Health Operations Centre, centralised last year, has significantly enhanced system-wide management of emergency ambulance response coverage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes the real-time monitoring of emergency department demand and ambulance standby capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Cook has been branded as \u201ctotally out of touch\u201d after he claimed WA\u2019s health system is performing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500,44,84,7239],"class_list":["post-5342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-state-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}