Build a world-class Women and Babies Hospital at QEII, as is international best practice, to ensure there is tri-location of these critical health services.
Introduce an Elective Surgery Guarantee to ensure that no individuals wait longer than clinically appropriate for their surgery.
Ensure our nurses and midwives are supported and incentivised to stay in WA.
Deliver a comprehensive plan to address out of control ambulance ramping.
Implement a comprehensive health infrastructure plan to build capacity.
Provide extra funding for Kids Helpline services across Western Australia.
Expand hospital in the home and community healthcare to provide more alternatives to emergency departments and hospital beds.
Introduce a $400 million Regional Health Development Initiative to ensure that Western Australians receive quality healthcare wherever they live in the state.
Commit to a Royal Commission into the crisis in WA’s health system.
Ambulance Ramping up 833%
Elective Surgery wait list up 55%
7 of the 8 worst Emergency Departments in Australia
10,000 children waiting up to 21 months to see a paediatrician
Despite record surpluses, ambulance ramping is at record levels, elective surgery wait lists have blown out by 55 per cent, surgery cancellation rates have skyrocketed, and WA has the worst performing emergency rooms in the country.
The results have been tragic.
The death of Aishwarya Aswath in 2021 highlighted how much the health system has deteriorated under Labor.
Aishwarya died after waiting two hours to be seen in the Emergency Department at Perth’s Children Hospital.
On multiple occasions before Aishwarya’s death, healthcare workers raised their concerns about understaffing and patient safety but were repeatedly ignored.
Twenty-six-year-old Ashleigh Hunter also suffered an unnecessarily painful death outside Royal Perth Hospital in 2019.
Overcrowding and a lack of beds inside the ED meant her ambulance sat ramped outside the hospital. Ashleigh died from a sepsis infection after she was finally triaged into the Emergency Room.
Our healthcare workers are doing the best they can, but many are telling us they are burnt out and disillusioned due to chronic understaffing.
It’s hardly surprising. In 2017, WA nurses were the highest paid in the country.
Under WA Labor, they are now the lowest.
The slide in pay is undoubtedly contributing to the shortage of healthcare workers in WA hospitals, particularly in regional areas.
Why would you want to work in WA when other states are paying better?
WA’s healthcare workers deserve greater support and acknowledgement for the extraordinary work they do.
We all need to be able to trust that when we are sick and vulnerable, our health system will take care of us.
Western Australians deserve better, and a WA Liberal Government will deliver a healthcare system they can rely on.
