A NSW parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping, and its effect on hospital emergency departments, was announced this week and will investigate the effectiveness of current NSW Health measures to address the issue of bed block.

Australian Paramedics Association delegate and Gundagai paramedic Gary Wilson welcomed the move.

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Mr Wilson said although bed block has been an issue for most of his almost 20 years as a Riverina paramedic, it has been getting progressively worse in recent months.

"Despite repeated pleas from all the health care unions, the government has failed to address it," he said.

"Doctors and nurses are doing their best with the limited resources they have available, but until the government invests in them, there's only so much it can do to prop up a sick system."

Mr Wilson said the situation is "very complex" with "no simple fix".

"More paramedics will help, and the government has committed to those. But we also need more doctors and nurses and better options so patients don't have to present to a hospital. This also means improving GP services, community nursing and better aged care facilities."

NSW Health said hospitals across the country had been under significant pressure due to the high number of COVID-19 and influenza cases.

"Flu and COVID is also affecting staff availability, with many health workers needing time off to care for family or recuperate themselves," a NSW Health spokesperson said.

"Regardless of any staffing pressures, patients in emergency departments are always triaged according to the urgency of their condition.

"During very busy times, those people with less urgent conditions will experience longer wait times, as the seriously unwell are prioritised."

NSW Health urged the community to save ambulances and EDs for urgent and critical conditions.

"Each local health district is addressing the current challenges in several ways, including increasing bed capacity where possible and ensuring all available clinical staff are deployed to areas with the highest care demands," the spokesperson said.

"Where necessary, the highly networked NSW health system can also transfer or redirect patients to other hospitals, including private hospitals."

Opposition health spokesperson Ryan Park agreed it was a "critical issue, because it's an area of the health service that's currently in crisis."

"We've got the worst emergency department wait times we've seen, big delays in accessing ambulances, major problems with hospital ramping," Mr Park said.

"Across NSW we're seeing long delays in emergency departments, people having to wait hours to access emergency care and people stuck in the back of ambulances for sustained periods.

"I've had an enormous amount of correspondence from across NSW highlighting the extent of the problem."

"Not too many hospitals aren't experiencing this at the moment."

However, Wagga-based MLC Wes Fang has labelled the move a political stunt.

Mr Fang sits on the committee looking into ambulance ramping and bed block at hospital emergency departments across the state, but believes it is politically motivated.

"We tend to get negatively-focused inquiries as elections approach, and given it was moved by Labor and the cross-bench with no foreshadowing to the government, it's a pretty clear sign it's more about politics," he said.

"I expect they will look to focus on issues in seats they want to pick up or retain."

He said this means the focus of the inquiry may get distracted from the issues at play.

But Mr Fang also acknowledged hospitals are under increased stress due to the high number of COVID cases and other winter sicknesses.

In response to the allegations, Mr Park hit back.

"Wes Fang might have clocked off for work in this term of parliament, but I certainly haven't," Mr Park said.

"This is an important issue I want to focus on. The community has also made clear to me this is an issue that needs improvement.

"It's an opportunity to ensure there are solutions going forward that reduce the impacts this is having on delivering health services."

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