WA's peak medical body has raised concerns about St John Ambulance's capacity to cope with demand at the height of what is predicted to be a severe flu season.
On Friday, St John issued a social media alert warning Perth residents they could expect delays in response times if they called triple-0 for an ambulance.
It attributed the delays to "extremely high" demand, staffing issues and the ongoing problem of ambulance ramping. Roughly 22 per cent of its metropolitan fleet was ramped at the time.
By 7am on Saturday, St John chief operating officer Antony Smithson said normal operations were resuming.
"Well done to all, to our amazing team in the State Operations Centre, to our people on the road and those behind the scenes," he said in a statement.
"We expect it will remain busy for St John as we respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."
AMA says ramping to get worse in short term
But Australian Medical Association (AMA) WA president Mark Duncan-Smith warned the strain caused by COVID-19 would soon be compounded by the flu.
After two years of unusually few flu infections due to social distancing and mask wearing, the impending season is predicted to be particularly acute.
"We're seeing in the eastern states already that flu numbers are around double what was expected, and it's also severe," Dr Duncan-Smith said.
"This, on the back of COVID, will make things even worse."
Dr Duncan-Smith blamed the ambulance crisis on the state government's "chronic underinvestment" in the health system.
"With the perfect storm of chronic ramping due to the McGowan government over the last five years, COVID and furloughing, the increased protocols in emergency departments creating inefficiency and the influenza season, unfortunately we're going to see ramping get worse before it gets better," he said.
"It's very difficult for the ambulance service to respond to emergency calls when one-fifth of their fleet is parked outside hospitals."
Opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam echoed the AMA's concerns, saying the health system was underfunded and putting lives at risk.
"These alerts from St John point to a hospital system which is under extraordinary pressure, with one in five ambulances ramped [on Friday] and the worst start to winter on record," she said.
"In not addressing the ramping crisis, the McGowan government is failing WA patients, health workers, and putting St John Ambulance under unprecedented pressure."
Staff shortages creating 'difficult situation'
Premier Mark McGowan has denied the state's health system is underfunded.
"I just urge the AMA to be positive and acknowledge we invest more per capita than any other state in Australia in our health system, and we're adding 530 additional beds to the system," he said.
Mr McGowan said the government was doing all it could to help St John, including using career firefighters to support paramedics.
"We've got additional staff working with St Johns, in particular fire officers, to drive ambulances," he said.
"It's been a period of very, very high demand, but I understand they're doing the best they can in the circumstances.
"Obviously we want to see the situation improve, but while we have so many staff off with sickness, it's a difficult situation we're dealing with."
