McGOWAN
GOVERNMENT — HEALTH PERFORMANCE
535. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I
have a supplementary question. Given that ''red squaring'' is now
the new normal, how can the minister at all suggest that the health
system is not in crisis?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
I remind the opposition of a couple
of quotes that have come from members on its side. It is true that our
hospitals are busy at the moment and —
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, member
for Vasse! You have already asked your supplementary question and the minister
is responding.
Ms
A. SANDERSON: There are occasions
when there are pressure points that arrangements need to be made for patients to be seen safely. I remind the member of
a direct quote from former Premier Colin Barnett in 2013. He said —
� while patients have been in corridors
and the like � I think we need to keep that in perspective.
He said that a close family friend
had been in Fremantle Hospital —
� but the level of care was superb.
That was the member's own
Premier who said that when she was in government. Helpfully, the former Liberal
health minister called into 6PR a couple of weeks ago and said —
It is really easy to talk about
ambulance ramping.
�
It
needs to change the way patients come through emergency departments and it's
easy to sit outside and say how it should be done. It's a lot
harder from the inside and I know they are trying to do some of those things.
That is from the former Liberal
health minister, and that is exactly what we are doing. We are investing in our
long-stay patients and moving them out into aged-care facilities and transition
care. We are investing in virtual emergency medicine, which is already in
existence at south metro and is being rolled out at east metro and north metro
as well. We are investing in real-time imaging and in waiting room nurses.
There is significant investment happening across the system and we are in a global
pandemic. Every single system is experiencing the same issues. I want to pay
credit to the hardworking staff of our system, who are doing a fantastic job
caring for people. Most importantly, they are caring for people who are coming
in triaged at 1, 2 and 3. They are seen as appropriately clinically safe. They
are seen as an emergency care patient. I urge those patients who are triaged at
4 and 5 and who could go to a GP or an urgent care clinic to do that.