House of Representatives

Thursday 8 February 2024

Check against delivery

The hospital system in Western Australia is in crisis.

Today, I rise for the 10th time in this place to call on WA Premier, Roger Cook, and his Labor MPs to do their jobs and fix our health system.

Last week, data released by the Productivity Commission revealed that WA is the worst in the nation when it comes to seeing urgent patients on time.

Only 32% of ED patients were seen on time, and it's almost half the national average of 58%.

Of course, this will be no surprise to Western Australians.

Labor's healthcare record in WA, particularly in the Peel region, is a disaster.

In 2016, the year before the election of WA Labor, ambulance ramping at the Peel Health Campus, my local hospital, was a total of 178 hours.

Last year, after nearly seven years of Labor, ramping exploded 1,500% to 2,820 hours.

That's a total of 117 days that patients spent on an ambulance stretcher, waiting for a bed in the Peel Health Campus emergency department.

There's a question that people in the Peel region need to ask: are they better off after seven years of WA Labor?

I think the answer must be no.

I want to make clear, though, that my concerns do not lie with our dedicated doctors, nurses and hospital staff; we have some of the best in the world.

They go above and beyond, but they need the best resources they can get to care for our community.

That's why I'm calling on Premier Roger Cook and WA Labor to get on with the job, because right now they have failed us.