Before coming into office WA Labor made no secret of its desire to overhaul the health system, having for years argued the state was being plagued by a "crisis" in the area.

Three years into Labor's term in government, Health Minister Roger Cook said substantial change had been achieved.

"It is a quiet but purposeful revolution," Cook told State Parliament this week.

The Deputy Premier pointed to planned redevelopments of Royal Perth, Osborne Park and Joondalup hospitals, a proposed new maternity facility, as well as boosted spending on palliative care and mental health.

"We are doing more today than has ever been done," Cook said.

In some ways, the evidence for that is obvious.

Just under one million people attended emergency departments at WA public hospitals last year, a 31 per cent surge in just six years.

Royal Perth Hospital is still waiting for a promised upgrade. ( Supplied: Google Streetview )

Despite the surge in demand, health spending growth has also slowed from the eye-watering levels seen over the past decade, which helped to put the overall budget under enormous strain.

Beyond that, the Government also established what it viewed as a signature reform for the sector when it opened urgent care clinics, using a centralised booking system and the existing network of general practitioners to help patients find available doctor appointments.

But according to key metrics significant problems remain and tangible evidence of improvement in those areas can be difficult to find.

Ramping, long wait times clog WA hospitals

During Labor's eight years in opposition, the growth in ramping hours — the time ambulances are stuck waiting outside emergency departments — was at the centre of its argument of a system in "crisis".

But ramping soon turned into an enormous headache for the new Government, with statistics throughout 2019 making it abundantly clear no real dent had been made in the problem, and it arguably had become even worse.

Ambulance ramping has become an increasingly common sight in the past three years. ( ABC News: Natasha Harradine )

In May last year, for example, there were 2,700 hours of ramping — five times higher than the 2017 figure for the same month and roughly triple the 2018 figure.

But ramping, a metric the Government no longer publicly tracks after a bruising year on that front in 2019, is far from the only evidence of a deeply stressed system.

The elective surgery waitlist now numbers nearly 25,000 — 30 per cent up in barely over three years on figures Labor at the time claimed were "shocking statistics" and "a massive failure" of the former government.

On top of that, official figures show half of all "urgent" cases presented to emergency departments are not being seen within the recommended half an hour.

And the Health Department is still well short of meeting its goal of having all ED attendees discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours — with 25 per cent of patients not dealt with in that time.

Plus, early data has cast doubt over the effectiveness of the new urgent care clinic system, with numbers provided to Parliament late last year indicating just 180 bookings were made in the first two months.

All of that, of course, comes before the coronavirus outbreak is factored in. WA authorities maintain the risk to the state is low, but are on alert as the spread continues.

Medihotels plan stalls

Cook said one of the biggest changes in the health system "revolution" was still to come.

Health Minister Roger Cook says "Medihotels" will free up hospital beds. ( ABC News: James Carmody )

A network of "Medihotels" was to be set up, comprising facilities near existing hospitals that would house mostly regional patients who no longer required acute care but were not yet ready to go home.

The Government made them a centrepiece of their 2017 election strategy, arguing they would free up hospital beds and ease strain on the system.

But progress has been minimal.

Construction of the first Medihotel, in Murdoch, is yet to even start and the project is more than a year behind schedule.

A Medihotel is planned for near Fiona Stanley Hospital. ( ABC News: Jacob Kagi )

Now the first Medihotel is not due to open until late 2022, five and a half years after the McGowan Government first came to office.

Cook admitted this week progress on the Medihotel plan had been frustratingly slow.

"That project is now coming into shape but not as fast as we would have liked and that is disappointing," the Minister said.

The Government had hoped the opening of the first Medihotels — others are also planned for Royal Perth and Joondalup hospitals — would make a dent in health system data that continues to be problematic.

Yet despite the Minister's claims of a revolution, questions remain about how much better off the health system is now than it was during what Cook repeatedly labelled a "crisis".