The RACGP has hit back at WA Premier Mark McGowan for blaming much of the state’s hospital crisis on GPs who had stopped bulk-billing and refused to see respiratory patients.

Mr McGowan was defending WA’s health system, which he said had also been hit by furloughed staff, an increase in respiratory syncytial virus in children, and problems in recruiting overseas trained medical staff.

“I think what is a large part of the problem, is the relationship between the Commonwealth health system and the state health system,” he told reporters on Monday.

“In that, if you want to go to a GP these days, very few bulk-bill and a lot won’t see respiratory cases, therefore people are going into the emergency departments.