Ambulance ramping is a long-standing issue across WA’s hospital emergency departments. As complaints grew of a health system "in crisis" and "bursting at the seams", WA Labor assured voters it had a plan to fix it. "When ambulances are forced to drive the streets of Perth to find an emergency ward that can accept patients, that is a crisis," the party’s leader said at a campaign launch geared at toppling a two-term Liberal government from office. But that leader was not Mark McGowan. It was Geoff Gallop, and those words were uttered close to two decades ago. Back then, the big problem was seen as ambulance bypass — where paramedics were diverted to other hospitals because emergency rooms were overflowing and could not take more patients. That still happens sometimes, but the more common symptom of a similar problem these days is ramping. Ex-premier Geoff Gallop (left) said WA’s […]