EMERGENCY
DEPARTMENTS
401. Mr Y. MUBARAKAI to the Minister for Health:
I have a very important
question for the Minister for Health. I refer to the McGowan Labor government's
commitment to meeting the
unprecedented levels of demand facing Western Australia's emergency
departments. Can the minister update the house on how the McGowan Labor
government's $1.9 billion investment—I repeat: $1.9 billion
investment—in our health system will ease the pressure on Western Australian
emergency departments and ensure that world-class care can continue to be
delivered?
Mr R.H. COOK replied:
I thank the member for the
question. Before I answer the member's important question, I hope you
will indulge me briefly, Madam Speaker. This morning as the member for
Kwinana and representing the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, I attended the funeral of Mrs Theresa Walley, who would be
known to many in the Parliament. Mrs Walley was one of the great elders of the south west of Western Australia. She
was a member of the stolen generation who not only went on to grow a huge,
thriving family, but also was a stalwart and a great advocate for the Noongar
community.
The SPEAKER: Hear, hear!
Mr R.H. COOK: I want to put on the record my
condolences to her family and thanks to her.
It is a very important question. We know that our emergency
departments are under unprecedented pressure at the moment. A lot of our
frontline healthcare workers are doing it tough. We are seeing a post-COVID
spike in hospital demand. Although those opposite are in denial about these
things, I want to quote briefly Dr Sean Stevens, chair of the WA faculty of the
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. According to my notes,
yesterday on Channel Nine he said —
They (Premier and Health Minister)
are actually quite true. We did see a period during the pandemic � where for a range
of reasons, people didn't see their GP for their regular preventative
health. And it just shows the importance of having regular preventative health
checks because now we are seeing some of the effects of this delayed diagnosis
and treatment.
That is the reason we have such peaks in triage 1s and triage
2s and, to a lesser extent, triage 3s in the EDs and why our hospitals are
under particular pressure.�
I am particularly proud of the McGowan government's $1.9
billion commitment to health care, which is dedicated to putting patients
first. Part of that plan is to assist emergency departments and the staff who
work in them. Perth's EDs will receive a massive $100 million funding
injection as part of the upcoming state budget, which will see an additional 50
full-time equivalent staff employed, including medical, nursing, allied health
and support services staff. It is designed to improve patient flow, reduce
bedlock, relieve ambulance congestion and, of course, improve health outcomes
for WA patients.
I was also pleased to announce, while touring the virtual
emergency medicine system at Fiona Stanley Hospital on Monday, that during its
first month this pilot successfully reduced ramping or diverted 25 per cent of
ambulances away from EDs. This system works by having a teleconference call
with the paramedics and patient in the ambulance
before they get to the ED so that they may be diverted, if possible, to
ambulatory care or go straight to a medical imaging department for
diagnostic attention. That, in itself, obviously provides a very innovative and
clever way of reducing congestion in our EDs. A $2.3 million boost to this
cutting-edge system will be expanded to
Rockingham General Hospital and Peel Health Campus, and we look forward to
seeing it flow through to other EDs.
We have also committed $4.8 billion to boost the Perth
Children's Hospital emergency department to employ an additional 16
nurses, which will allow for an additional nurse on every shift to be based in
the ED waiting area to monitor patients. This $100 million package will provide
$61.6 million for mental health, including $7.9 million for child and
adolescent mental health services; the construction of two mental health
emergency centres at the Rockingham and Armadale hospitals; new
multidisciplinary team pilots, called active recovery teams, based at a range
of hospitals across Perth and the regions; and an expansion of the adult
community treatment services that support people with mental health issues as
they come out of a hospital environment.
The reasons for the increased pressure on our hospitals are
multifactorial, and that is why we have brought a multifactorial response,
sponsored by a $1.9 billion boost to healthcare services in Western Australia.
That is another example of how the McGowan government is putting patients
first.