CORONAVIRUS — INTENSIVE CARE UNITS —
REGIONS
1214. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the minister representing the
Minister for Health:
I refer to the state government's
commitment to ''make every day count'' between now and the
reopening of the state border on 5 February.
(1) How many
additional negative pressure rooms will the state government provide to
regional hospitals between now and 5 February?
(2) How many
additional intensive care unit beds will the state government provide to
regional hospitals between now and 5 February?
(3) Will the state government establish any additional
permanent mass vaccination clinics in the low vaccination uptake areas
of the Pilbara, the Kimberley or the goldfields between now and 5 February?
(4) Will the minister please detail any other new
regional health measures the state government will implement to make
every day count between now and 5 February?
Hon
MATTHEW SWINBOURN replied:
I thank the member for some notice
of the question. On behalf of the minister representing the Minister for
Health, I provide the following answer based on information provided to me by
the Minister for Health.
(1)–(2) The
McGowan government has invested a further $1.28 billion in the health and
mental health systems in the 2021–22 midyear review. Combined with the
$1.9 billion investment at the time of the budget, this has delivered a record
$3.2 billion boost to Western Australia's health system. This
additional funding includes an additional 270 hospital beds and associated
staff. Some regional hospitals have an existing negative pressure room and
there is also the ability to deploy portable anterooms, which can be attached
to an existing doorway and become a negative pressure room.
(3) There are
fixed clinics in the larger towns, including Broome, Kununurra, South Hedland,
Karratha, Kalgoorlie and Esperance, and in-reach clinics in the smaller towns
and remote Aboriginal communities as well as smaller pop-up clinics at
locations that are more accessible to vulnerable populations, including soup
kitchens and facilities that provide breakfast for the homeless.
(4) These measures include ongoing service continuity preparation
related to living with COVID, the deployment of patient-care equipment—for example, filters and hoods—statewide
home monitoring, remote community transport
and Chief Health Officer–led accommodation preparation. Targeted
vaccination programs in the regions remains the priority.