Western Australian public hospitals and emergency departments are in a spiralling state of decline under the McGowan Government.
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said the Australian Medical Association’s Public Hospital Report Card 2023 released today, should be a wake-up call to the McGowan Government, which had been asleep at the wheel in regards to the state’s public hospital system.
“This report shows that even when WA was relatively covid free and hospitals in other states were groaning under the weight of covid admissions, Western Australian hospitals were still performing worse in many areas,” Ms Mettam said.
“The Premier and Health Minister continue to tell the public how well our emergency departments are performing against the four-hour rule, what they don’t tell you is that those figures are artificially enhanced because rather than waiting in hospital EDs patients are being forced to wait in hospital driveways in ambulances.
“They are also not spruiking about the data that shows once patients do finally make their way out of the driveway and into an ED only one in three of those needing urgent care is being seen within the recommended 30 minutes.
“These are shameful figures for what our Premier is constantly telling us is the wealthiest state in the nation.”
Ms Mettam said that a number of band-aid measures announced by Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson in the past couple of weeks would do very little to fix systemic problems and chronic under staffing in the public hospital system.
“This is the Government that commissioned the multi-million dollar Sustainable Health Review and is now at every turn ignoring the recommendations of that review,” she said.
