St John WA has warned Perth residents of more ambulance delays as paramedics experience “extremely high” levels of demand.
At 2.45pm on Friday, St John issued a public warning notice to residents telling them that response times would be affected.
“There is likely to be a delay in an ambulance reaching people calling Triple Zero,” the alert said.
The ambulance provider issued similar alerts in May.
As of Friday, about 22 percent of St John’s fleet in the metropolitan city of Perth had increased.
“The State Operations Center is receiving call volumes in excess of 40 calls per hour and we are about seven percent of the waiting capacity,” the alert revealed.
Public messaging is part of the “ambulance escalation plan” during the COVID-19 pandemic and had been an unprecedented step for the provider earlier this year, but has since become a trend.
St John reminded the community of non-emergency care options available, such as Healthdirect, local GPs or emergency care centers and the 13COVID helpline.
“Our priority is to provide care to Western Australians who need help saving lives,” said a spokeswoman.
WA has been shaken by a series of cardiac deaths that involved long waiting times for ambulances as the ramp continues to unprecedented levels.
St John’s WA recorded its worst ambulance increase statistics in May, just as the state is expected to fight both the end of the pandemic and a rising number of flu cases this winter.
The 5,130 hours that ambulances spent outside hospitals without being able to transport their patients inside were five times higher than the 1,011 hours recorded in May 2020 and well above the 3,834 recorded in May 2021.
The data also revealed a burst in waiting times for the country’s hospitals in May, with 107 hours of ramp recorded this year, compared to 20 in 2020, but below 128 in 2021.
It comes when new state ED performance data revealed that delayed response times occurred despite an 11% decrease in patient volume compared to a year ago.
Seventy percent of patients in urgent need of care in WA emergency departments were not seen in the recommended 30-minute window in April, despite a surprise drop in hospital presentations.
The biggest impact was on the triage of 3 patients with life-threatening conditions that should be seen in half an hour, a standard that was only met in 30.9% of cases in April, compared to 43.8% as of April 2021.