The states emergency departments are “creaking” under capacity demand with wait times the worst in the nation, according to a report from Australia’s peak medical body.
The AMA has released its 2026 Public Hospital Report Card which shows WA emergency departments performed the worst in the country while hospitals faced ongoing challenges in planned surgery performance.
AMA (WA) said the data showed the hospital system was under unprecedented strain.
Compiled using Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2024-25, the report card showed WA emergency departments delivered the worst urgent-care timeliness in the country, with only 29% of Category 3 presentations seen within 30 minutes.
Four-hour rule performance had also fallen by 5%, meaning just 54% of patients presenting to EDs were seen and either admitted, transferred, or discharged within that recommended time period.
While median planned surgery wait times improved slightly to 45 days, patients not treated within recommended timeframes waited for what the AMA (WA) described as “extraordinarily long periods”.
WA patients waited up to 502 days for Category 3 procedures, which are recommended to be completed within 365 days, and up to 197 days for Category 2 procedures which are supposed to be undertaken within 90 days.
AMA (WA) President Dr Kyle Hoath said the record lows across key emergency department indicators and ongoing challenges in planned surgery performance demonstrated a system “creaking under the weight of its capacity needs”.
He said this meant frontline staff were working in environments that were stretched well beyond what is reasonable.
“These pressures aren’t new or isolated — they reflect long‑term demand outpacing investment, with hospitals routinely asked to do more than they are resourced to deliver,” he said.
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Dr Hoath said incremental improvements would not be enough to restore the capacity that had been lost across the WA public hospital system over time.
“WA needs a sustained, long‑term commitment from both levels of government to strengthen our hospital capability and support our workforce,” he said.
“The system remains well short of where it needs to be. This report card gives government an opportunity to refocus on what matters: timely care, resourced hospitals, and a system that supports clinicians to deliver the standard of care Western Australians deserve.”
In December last year, upon the initial release of the AIHW data, WA’s Minister for Health Meredith Hammat put increased ED wait times down to the increasing complexity of patient conditions.
“I think what those figures are telling us is that the increase in demand is not always about additional people, it is about the complexity that people have when they come to hospital and we’ve seen much more of that,” she said.
The state government has announced a $140 million winter strategy to prepare the public hospital system ahead of winter. Some 200 more hospital beds will be available alongside a focus on educating patients when to go to ED and when to seek care elsewhere.
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On a national level, the federal AMA’s analysis showed Australian public hospitals remained under sustained pressure.
AMA Federal President Dr Danielle McMullen said the national report showed some modest improvements, but patients were still waiting too long for care and the gap between demand and capacity continues to grow.
The proportion of patients completing their emergency department visit within four hours has fallen again to the lowest level on record.
“Patients triaged as urgent include people with fractures, severe abdominal pain and severe injuries, and nearly one third of these patients are still not being seen on time, which is unacceptable,” she said.
“Planned surgery performance remains deeply concerning. While median waiting times have fallen slightly for the second year in a row, Australians are still waiting far longer for surgery than they were a decade ago.”
Dr McMullen welcomed the $25 billion of additional federal funding for hospitals announced as part of the new National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA), but warned it may fall short of what is needed.
“Our costings suggest $25 billion may not be enough. AMA modelling showed at least $34 billion was required — and that’s before counting what states and territories must contribute,” she said.
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