Former health chief, Dr. Neale Fong, is heading up a short-term review of Western Australia’s hospitals. Alongside that he’s taking a hard look at their maintenance practices. He has raised serious concerns regarding the state of these facilities, stating that “some hospitals are old and depleted in some spaces.” The audit will conclude next month. Its purpose is to shed light on how the Cook administration plans to use the newly-established $50 million health infrastructure maintenance fund.
Join us as Dr. Fong delves into the most acute concerns. He passionately argues that simply constructing more hospitals will not fix the growing health emergency facing the state. He warned that we would require more hospital beds than ever before. Despite that, he put the greatest emphasis on the need to better serve support services at the beginning of the journey with illness. Sure, we need more hospital beds, but we need more support services at the front end of people’s illnesses. It’s not only about new beds, he added.
Audit Aims to Address Infrastructure Challenges
Dr. Fong’s audit is timely as hospitals across the country are struggling with maintenance, capacity and staffing issues. At the same time, he admitted that massive effort and resources need to be focused on repairing and maintaining the crumbling hospital stock. As we’ve learned, we need to do more on the side of retrofitting and modularly deploying more of our aging hospitals. Bradley says it’s obvious that more resources are needed to support this important work.
This health crisis, including unprecedented ambulance ramping hours created by an underfunded healthcare system, has contributed. Last month’s figures were an appalling 7,257 hours—14 times higher than a mere decade ago, when ambulances waited less than 500 hours in emergency department backlogs. This reality calls for quick interventions as well as long-term action from the federal government.
The Cook government have invested an additional $500 million into health infrastructure projects. This is on top of a $50 million maintenance fund, intended to address cost overruns and accelerate the construction of new hospitals. Last month, we witnessed three months in a row of record ambulance ramping. This troubling trend has raised the ire of health advocates and the community at large.
Future Plans for Health Infrastructure
Looking ahead, Dr. Fong’s audit is expected to guide the allocation of funds from the health infrastructure maintenance budget effectively. Through that process, the need for thousands of new supportive beds has been made clear. He was unable to put a dollar amount on what it would cost to fix the crisis. “We won’t come up with a number, I don’t know what that number is,” he admitted, underscoring the complexity of the situation.
In answer to these challenges, the state government’s looking at a lot of different approaches to relieve the pressure on the hospitals. We’re committed to delivering 400 new residential aged care beds. In addition, we’ll make sure there are guaranteed staffing levels and create new ways to divert patients away from emergency departments. These measures are intended to offer temporary relief while more permanent solutions are put into place.
The next new hospital should be built in Perth’s far north, next to the Yanchep train station which has already been agreed. This announcement is a big step in a long battle to improve healthcare availability in developing areas of Western Australia.
Collaborative Efforts in Healthcare Reform
Dr. Fong underscored the need for greater collaboration between healthcare professionals in today’s troubling and stressful climate. He emphasized a unique moment in time with nurses and doctors unions aligned and collaborating on creative alternative solutions. “You don’t very often see nurses and doctors’ unions actually joining hands together, so I think the government would be glad to see that people are actually putting their shoulder to the wheel to think about new ways of working together,” he remarked.
Much of this new pressure on our healthcare system is due to simple math. More people overall and a population that’s getting older. Dr. Fong emphasized this point, stating, “More people and an older population… means that there’ll be more demands on our healthcare system.”
As Western Australia continues to face these persistent, troubling realities, the need for evidence-based solutions grows increasingly urgent. Dr. Fong’s audit focuses on identifying immediate maintenance needs. It also provides the strategic guidance necessary to make key decisions that will re-shape the healthcare landscape within the state.
