HOSPITALS — BED
CAPACITY
244. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Health:
I refer to the response to my
question without notice 58, asked on 14 February 2019, relating to hospital
overcrowding and the resultant poor health outcomes for Western Australians.
(1) Why does the state government
not have a benchmark for overcrowding?
(2) Does the
state government concede that Western Australia has the lowest number of beds
per capita of any state?
(3) Does the
state government accept the assertion of the Australian Medical Association WA
emergency medicine spokesman, Dr David Mountain, that WA needs another 500 to
700 beds just to catch up with the state with the next lowest bed stock?
(4) Does the
state government concede that the bed-to-population ratio is likely to further
deteriorate, given the state government is reducing health funding in per
capita terms while placing further pressure on services by promoting population
growth?
Hon
ALANNA CLOHESY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
I refer the member to identical
question without notice 89 asked on 20 February 2019. The answers remain
exactly the same as provided in that question without notice.