FIRST ON 6PR 

6PR Mornings host Liam Bartlett has revealed how much taxpayers are being slugged for ambulances to sit idle outside WA hospitals.

Ambulance ramping figures for March show WA patients were forced to wait 3642 hours before being admitted to emergency departments.

Taxpayers are being slugged every hour an ambulance sits outside WA’s emergency departments through a fine system agreed to between the state government and St John Ambulance WA.

But both parties have refused to disclose how much the fines are worth.

“Based on information we have received from various insiders, we are told the secret fee is about $300 per hour to keep an ambulance and it’s crew sitting around waiting,” Bartlett said.

“So on that calculation, last month every single day taxpayers shelled out somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000.

“That means last month the ramping cost us all $1.1 million, and then there is the emotional cost.”

Click play to hear more. 

(Photo: iStock by Getty Images.)