Ambulance ramping 'worse since Fiona Stanley Hospital'

Ambulances have been forced to queue outside busy hospital emergency departments in Perth for more than 3000 hours so far this year.

The State Opposition said today that the amount of ambulance ramping had worsened since Fiona Stanley Hospital opened, and was almost 17 per cent higher than at the same time last year.

So far this year, ambulances have been ramped for 3069 hours compared to 2629 hours at the same time last year.

The worst affected hospitals are Joondalup Health Campus and Sir Charles Gairdner, Swan Districts and Rockingham hospitals.

Shadow health minister Roger Cook said the State Government had been brushing aside concerns about ambulance ramping for years by claiming everything would be fixed when Fiona Stanley Hospital opened.

“Fiona Stanley Hospital has opened, and ambulance ramping shows no sign of reducing and is actually getting worse,” he said