Experts including emergency specialists, surgeons and doctors from across the state have met to develop a roadmap out of Queensland’s unprecedented ramping crisis.

The Australian Medical Association Queensland’s president, Professor Chris Perry, said ramping was the “public face of hospitals which are too small”.

“We can have ambulances waiting for more than 7 hours out the front of public hospitals, we can have 15 or more of them,” he told Scott Emerson.

“The ambulance service can have 40 ambulances out of action at any time in the state, sometimes more.

“So when the ambulances are at the public hospitals they can’t pick up new people from motor vehicle accidents, or heart attacks, people can be dying in their homes, dying on the the side of the road.

“We need to fix it.”

In May, 4BC Drive detailed a number of shocking cases where Queenslanders were left waiting for hours.

Professor Perry said the problem is complex.

“At the end of the day, there’s only so much juice you can squeeze out of a lemon.

“And the public hospitals have been squeezed for 30, 40 years it’s about time some serious re-looking [and] review is done, whether they’ve got the right number of beds, obviously we haven’t.”

He warned if it’s not taken seriously, more people will die.

“If you have a heart attack, a motor vehicle accident, you go to a public hospital and at the moment you are going to be waiting out the front, sometimes, for a whole 6-8 hours.”

Press PLAY below to hear what needs to be done

Images: iStock