St John has issued an unprecedented warning to Perth residents, that they are likely to experience delays in getting an ambulance owing to "extremely high" demand for its services.
It comes amid an ongoing health crisis in the state that has seen ambulance ramping outside hospitals reach record levels and on the day WA recorded its highest ever number of COVID cases.
It is the first time St John has directly appealed to the public about the dire state of its response times, as set down in its COVID escalation plan.
"At present, about 25 per cent of the St John fleet in metropolitan Perth is ramped, and the State Operations Centre is continuing to receive call volumes of more than 40 calls per hour," a St John spokeswoman said in a statement.
She said those with non-emergency health needs should seek alternative support from Heatlhdirect on 1800 022 222, their local GP or urgent care clinic, or the COVID hotline on 13COVID.
"Our priority is to provide care to Western Australians who require life-saving assistance," she said.
High call volume
Ambulance ramping is said to take place when a hospital takes longer than 30 minutes to admit a patient to the emergency department.
WA recorded its worst ambulance ramping figures in history last year, with paramedics spending more than 52,000 hours waiting to hand over patients outside hospitals, the equivalent of six years, according to figures published by St John WA.
It was more than double the 25,902 hours recorded in 2020 and five times higher than when the McGowan government took charge of the state in 2017.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said hospitals had been asked to do all they could to help.
“I am advised an unusually high volume of calls to the St John operations centre and high rates of staff furlough has increased pressure on the health system and St John," she said.
“Anyone requiring urgent care should call an ambulance as usual, but as always, please save triple-0 for genuine emergencies.”
Ambulance ramping escalating
Latest figures from St John show ambulance response times on Sunday were significantly behind target, with just under 70 per cent of the most urgent calls attended to within 15 minutes.
The aim is to have at least 90 per cent of such cases attended to in that time frame.
Of Sunday's urgent cases, about two-thirds were attended to within the target time of 25 minutes, again well behind the 90 per cent aim.
March was the second-worst month for ambulance ramping on record, with the state recording 5,654 hours.
However, just a week into May, ambulance ramping hours are already at 1,561 hours.
If that trend continues, the figures could eclipse those of September last year, WA's worst month for ramping on record, when ambulances spent 6,526 hours ramped outside hospitals.
