Qld govt must deal with ramping: union

Queensland's government must take urgent action to head off a spike in ambulance ramping at hospitals, the ambulance union says.

United Voice union delegate Torrin Nelson says ramping incidents, where ambulances are forced to queue up at hospital emergency departments too busy to accept new patients, are rising.

He claims the problem is so bad that up to eight ambulances have been forced to queue up outside a single hospital.

Mr Nelson says three ambulance crews were even told by Gladstone Hospital staff not to wait outside the emergency department so they wouldn't be counted as ramping.

United Voice has written to Health Minister Cameron Dick requesting he immediately reinstate the Metropolitan Emergency Department Access Initiative to deal with the problem.

"There's no doubt ramping has taken off again in recent times and now is the time to deal with it before we are back to bad old days," Mr Nelson said in a statement.

"Getting on top of ramping is an important way to improve patient care and ease the stress on ambulance officers."

Ramping is a recurring problem in Queensland that both major parties have tried to deal with.

Comment has been sought from the health minister.