Six years after announcing a Medihotel would be built in Murdoch, the McGowan Labor Government continues to drag its feet on delivering the project, with yet another delay in the final completion date.
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said today’s announcement that the facility would not be finished until 2024 was a reminder that the McGowan Government can talk the talk but simply can’t deliver projects.
“This was one of the key election commitments announced before the 2017 election and was supposed to be finished in 2021,” Ms Mettam said.
“Yet six years on and it is still just a construction site.
“The whole aim of the Medihotel was supposed to free up hospital beds and ease pressure on emergency departments, yet despite the crisis in our health system, there doesn’t appear to be an urgency to get it finished.
Ms Mettam said the government had actually promised to build three Medihotels in 2017, yet all they have actually delivered was four beds at Royal Perth Hospital.
“In six years of government, they haven’t even been able to deliver one bed per year as part of this key health election pledge. Today’s reannouncement is an absolute joke,” Ms Mettam said.
“There are almost 27,000 people on the elective surgery waitlist, up from 19,000 people in 2017, but despite the ballooning waitlist there is no urgency to expedite measures such as the Medihotel to assist in reducing the wait time.”
Ms Mettam said the third Medihotel pledged at Joondalup Health Campus was now in the too-hard basket with no immediate plans to build it.
“It’s remarkable that with a health system in crisis, with seven of the eight worst performing emergency departments in the country and major blowouts in the elective surgery waitlist, that the government remains on the go-slow when it comes to delivering this infrastructure,” Ms Mettam said.
“It’s fair to ask how many more announcements and reannouncements will the McGowan Government make on this project before it finally finishes it?”
