St John is dealing with its biggest ever workload.  

National ambulance data shows there's been a 30% increase in 111 calls for ambulances over the past five years and a 17% jump in attended incidents. 

They fielded over 700 thousand calls last year, and attended more than 550 thousand incidents.  

Health Commentator Ian Powell told Mike Hosking ambulance services are mirroring the public hospital system in terms of acute admissions – things that cannot be deferred. 

He says that since 2011, the rate of acute admissions has increased at a higher rate than population growth. 

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