Labor's plan would significantly expand the emergency department. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
In short:
On the first official weekend of election campaigning, WA Labor and Liberals have announced their health policies days after a damning report into ambulance ramping in the state.
Labor's plan involves $97.3 million to modernise and redevelop Royal Perth Hospital's emergency department, and a further $7m for broader works at the hospital.
The plan from the Liberals includes a $91m plan to foot the bill for urgent care clinic consultations and expand St John Urgent Care clinics.
WA Labor has promised a multi-million-dollar upgrade of a major Perth hospital while the Liberals have committed to funding more urgent care clinics to reduce emergency department ramping during the first weekend of formal election campaigning.Â
The announcements come days after a damning Productivity Commission report into worsening wait times at WA public hospitals.
Five days into the official campaign period, Labor has taken a leaf out of the Liberals' book in turning its attention to health — this time to address ramping, improve services and slash wait times at Royal Perth Hospital.
Mr Cook says the hospital plays an important role in Perth. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
The $104 million dollar upgrade would include $97.3m to modernise and redevelop the emergency department and a further $7m for broader works on the hospital in coming years.
"Royal Perth is one of the state's longest-serving hospitals and continues to play a vital role as part of our overall hospital system in the metropolitan area," Premier Roger Cook said.
"It's also one of the busiest in the nation."
The health election commitment comes during the first weekend of official campaigning. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)
Mr Cook said it was time to "bring this hospital up to scratch" with a transformation of the emergency department, which includes more than 50 new treatment bays, a new CT scanner space, eight extra ambulance triage bays, more triage rooms and a specialised mental health early treatment zone.
If Labor is re-elected it will be done through expanding the footprint of the current ED, with a new building to the north of the existing Q-Block in a staged approach.
Increasing demandÂ
Mr Cook said the expansion would "transform emergency care", but it wasn't just Royal Perth that needed help with emergency department ramping.
Friday's Productivity Commission report found WA has Australia's worst wait times for urgent emergency department presentations, with just 32 per cent of patients in need of urgent care seen on time when presenting at WA public hospitals in 2023-24.
WA has the worst wait times for urgent ED presentations
Photo shows An ambulance parked outside Royal Perth Hospital with a blue sign for the emergency department in the foreground.
"In 2022-23 compared to 2023-24 we saw a dramatic 20 per cent reduction in ambulance ramping, we have also seen a dramatic over 30 per cent drop in elective surgery wait times," Mr Cook said when questioned.
As a reporter pointed out, the reduction in presentations in the 2023-24 period was likely due to fewer COVID-19 cases, but the premier insisted WA's health care was "of world-class quality".
Mr Cook said demands on the health system have "continued to ramp up", which was why Labor had focused on expanding and investing in public hospitals, but more support was needed.
"We need our primary health sector to work better, if people can't get in to see their GP or they can't afford to see their GP, they go to their local ED and that clogs up our hospitals," he said.
"We do need the [Federal government] to keep their foot on the pedal when it comes to primary health care."
Focus on urgent care clinics
Taking a different approach, the WA Liberals were on the hustings with their own solution — a $91 million dollar plan to reduce emergency department ramping in Perth hospitals by footing the bill for urgent care clinic consultations.
Its policy would "redirect patients to more timely and appropriate care" — in that if you're picked up in a St John ambulance and categorised as triage 3 for example, you could be redirected to a St John Urgent Care Clinic instead of a public hospital.
The WA Liberals are putting the focus on urgent care clinics. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)
The plan would cover an initial free consultation and treatment at the urgent care clinic, however, wouldn't cover the ambulance trip or any subsequent visits to the clinic given there are normally fees for consults.Â
"Under the Cook Labor government, ambulance ramping has become out of control," Liberal Leader Libby Mettam said.
"This is about driving cost efficiencies as well across our hospital system, given the cost of a response in an emergency department is about $950 per patient."
Ms Mettam said the plan would see a reduction in ambulance ramping from day one of "up to 20 per cent" by redirecting patients with less serious issues.
Ms Mettam and Churchlands candidate Basil Zempilas front the media to announce the plan. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)
The plan would cost $18m to cover an initial 60,000 presentations over four years at clinics, with a further $72m spent on expanding the number of St John Urgent Care clinics in Perth from six to nine.
This would essentially cover around 15,000 free consults per year of low-priority patients.
But Labor has hit out at the plan as effectively privatising urgent care, to which Ms Mettam scoffed at and said was instead about "giving patients more timely care".
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