❓ O'Malley asks about progress on the new women's and babies' hospital and opposition to it. Sanderson responds, highlighting government progress, criticising the opposition's record and commitment to the project.
AnsweredQoN 611Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WOMEN'S AND
BABIES' HOSPITAL — UPDATE
611. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
commitment to building the new women's and babies' hospital.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on this government's progress to deliver the
new women's and babies' hospital as well as expanded birthing
services at Osborne Park Hospital?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house whether she is aware of anyone who opposes building
this new hospital?
BABIES' HOSPITAL — UPDATE
611. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
commitment to building the new women's and babies' hospital.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on this government's progress to deliver the
new women's and babies' hospital as well as expanded birthing
services at Osborne Park Hospital?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house whether she is aware of anyone who opposes building
this new hospital?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Bicton for that question. We know that this government is
getting on with building a new women's
and newborns' hospital at the Murdoch site and doubling maternity
services at Osborne Park Hospital and neonatology at the Perth Children's
Hospital. We all know that King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women is 100 years
old. King Eddy's has served the community and the women of Western Australia
well, including myself two times, but it is very aged infrastructure and it is
reaching the end of its life. We need to get on with it and build a replacement.
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to
reshape maternity care in Western Australia with the builds of these hospitals
and to deliver maternity care in the way that Western Australian women
want and have been saying they want for a long time.
We know that women in Western Australia
will have a clear choice at the next election about a state-of-the-art hospital built in the southern suburbs. If the member
for Vasse wants to make the election a referendum about maternity
services, let us do it! Let us have that debate. We know that women will have a
choice between a brand new state-of-the-art hospital in Murdoch and no hospital
in Murdoch under the Liberal leader who will tear up the contract. We know the
Liberals will not deliver the expanded services at Osborne Park Hospital, a brand
new birthing centre, a brand new mother and baby unit or an expanded footprint —
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Order,
Leader of the Liberal Party!
Ms A. SANDERSON : They will
deliver disruption and risk to the health system for the next 10 years. They
will make women wait for at least 10 years. Let us not forget that they have a record
of building a hospital on the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre site, with the
Perth Children's Hospital, a hospital that had lead in the water and
asbestos in the roof. They could not get it open. The public knows their
record, but I am happy to remind them, in this context, of the opposition's
record.
Members in this place and people in
the community know that the government intended to build the hospital at the
QEII site, but the business case and the later review by Infrastructure WA
illustrated that there were unmitigable risks with that site and that the Fiona
Stanley Hospital would provide a better site. It is a greenfield site and it
would not have the impact on clinical services and the disruption of QEII for
up to 20 years; that was in the Infrastructure WA report. Building at the Fiona
Stanley Hospital site will mean better access for women and babies from
regional Western Australia via the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It will mean
more options for maternity care for women and families in the southern and
eastern suburbs. It will also mean an opportunity to expand maternity services
in the northern corridor, expanding maternity, gynaecology and neonatology at
the new family birth centre at Osborne Park
Hospital. Members, the project is well underway. I joined the Premier, the
member for Scarborough and the member for Balcatta to announce the
opening of the expressions of interest for community consultation about the
Murdoch and Osborne Park facilities. Women and babies are at the centre of this
project.
We
know what the Liberal Party wants to do with this. On 15 February, and more
recently, the Leader of the Liberal Party said that she will tear up the
government contract. She is calling for a delay of the contract and the only
policy —
Ms L. Mettam : We are the only
state without a world-class facility.
Ms A. SANDERSON : That is not
true. Every state has different circumstances. Not every state has a tri-located
hospital; let us be really clear about that. The member for Vasse has only one
maternity care policy, and that is not to build this hospital because it cannot
be built safely on that site. She has made some outrageous claims, including
that a majority of WA doctors, nurses and health experts agree that the women's
and babies' hospital should be built at QEII. She has never presented
any evidence to back up that claim. Never, ever has she presented evidence.
There are a range of points of view on this—there is no question about
that—and they are deeply held, but no-one has ever presented me with a shred
of evidence to demonstrate that what happens now is unsafe when we transfer
babies from King Edward Memorial Hospital to another hospital. That is what
happens now. No-one has presented a shred of
evidence to say to me that that is unsafe, but that is what the member is
saying now: what we do now is unsafe.
I will again put on the record some
evidence for the member for Vasse. A study was undertaken by a very senior Western
Australian neonatologist, and it was based on 38 studies and included 42 000
babies. It found that an overwhelming majority of studies do not support the
claims of the member for Vasse. For example, I will quote an article published
in 2015 by Saritha Paul and Steven Resnick titled ''Long-distance
transport of neonates with transposition of the great arteries for the arterial
switch operation: A 26-year Western Australian experience''. It reviewed
80 critical babies with complex heart defects, called transposition of the
great arteries, and it stated —
� long-distance transport of neonates
with TGA can be safely undertaken, with no evidence of increased transport
mortality/major morbidity or higher early surgical mortality.
The member for Vasse claims that
this government has not consulted experts, yet she willingly and wilfully
ignores that report. This is a senior neonatologist who teaches neonatologists
in Western Australia. In the chamber earlier in the year, I provided this
evidence, and she continues to ignore that advice.
The other advice that she continues
to ignore is that of the director general of Health. I know that she was
briefed on the risks of this project by the former director general of Health
because I facilitated that briefing. She was also provided advice by the new
director general in this chamber. It was very clearly articulated. Dr Shirley
Bowen, who was the chief executive of the North Metropolitan Health Service
prior to becoming the director general and was in charge of running Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital, said —
As the business case work became
evident to us, we realised that we would be significantly disrupting Sir
Charles Gairdner Hospital � the theatre block and the intensive care unit,
which would both be significantly disrupted by this build � Access to the
emergency departments would be limited for both Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
and Perth Children's Hospital � As an executive team, we all pondered
how we would be able to manage that service during that period. We delivered
the message to the minister that, should it continue to be built in its current
form, we had deep concerns about how we would deliver those services to the
people who need Sir Charles Gairdner.
The member for Vasse continues to
ignore that advice. We know that the Liberal Party will bring risk —
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : I would like to
be able to listen to the minister, but there seems to be some background noise
coming from upstairs.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : There is
a bit of noise coming from up in the gallery. Sorry, minister, carry on.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms A. SANDERSON : To conclude,
the member for Vasse needs to come clean about what services she is going to
disrupt, where she is going to put it, what surgeries she is going to cancel
and where she is going to put patients, visitors and the car park. We know that
the Liberal Party will deliver disarray and risk to the public health system.
thank the member for Bicton for that question. We know that this government is
getting on with building a new women's
and newborns' hospital at the Murdoch site and doubling maternity
services at Osborne Park Hospital and neonatology at the Perth Children's
Hospital. We all know that King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women is 100 years
old. King Eddy's has served the community and the women of Western Australia
well, including myself two times, but it is very aged infrastructure and it is
reaching the end of its life. We need to get on with it and build a replacement.
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to
reshape maternity care in Western Australia with the builds of these hospitals
and to deliver maternity care in the way that Western Australian women
want and have been saying they want for a long time.
We know that women in Western Australia
will have a clear choice at the next election about a state-of-the-art hospital built in the southern suburbs. If the member
for Vasse wants to make the election a referendum about maternity
services, let us do it! Let us have that debate. We know that women will have a
choice between a brand new state-of-the-art hospital in Murdoch and no hospital
in Murdoch under the Liberal leader who will tear up the contract. We know the
Liberals will not deliver the expanded services at Osborne Park Hospital, a brand
new birthing centre, a brand new mother and baby unit or an expanded footprint —
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Order,
Leader of the Liberal Party!
Ms A. SANDERSON : They will
deliver disruption and risk to the health system for the next 10 years. They
will make women wait for at least 10 years. Let us not forget that they have a record
of building a hospital on the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre site, with the
Perth Children's Hospital, a hospital that had lead in the water and
asbestos in the roof. They could not get it open. The public knows their
record, but I am happy to remind them, in this context, of the opposition's
record.
Members in this place and people in
the community know that the government intended to build the hospital at the
QEII site, but the business case and the later review by Infrastructure WA
illustrated that there were unmitigable risks with that site and that the Fiona
Stanley Hospital would provide a better site. It is a greenfield site and it
would not have the impact on clinical services and the disruption of QEII for
up to 20 years; that was in the Infrastructure WA report. Building at the Fiona
Stanley Hospital site will mean better access for women and babies from
regional Western Australia via the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It will mean
more options for maternity care for women and families in the southern and
eastern suburbs. It will also mean an opportunity to expand maternity services
in the northern corridor, expanding maternity, gynaecology and neonatology at
the new family birth centre at Osborne Park
Hospital. Members, the project is well underway. I joined the Premier, the
member for Scarborough and the member for Balcatta to announce the
opening of the expressions of interest for community consultation about the
Murdoch and Osborne Park facilities. Women and babies are at the centre of this
project.
We
know what the Liberal Party wants to do with this. On 15 February, and more
recently, the Leader of the Liberal Party said that she will tear up the
government contract. She is calling for a delay of the contract and the only
policy —
Ms L. Mettam : We are the only
state without a world-class facility.
Ms A. SANDERSON : That is not
true. Every state has different circumstances. Not every state has a tri-located
hospital; let us be really clear about that. The member for Vasse has only one
maternity care policy, and that is not to build this hospital because it cannot
be built safely on that site. She has made some outrageous claims, including
that a majority of WA doctors, nurses and health experts agree that the women's
and babies' hospital should be built at QEII. She has never presented
any evidence to back up that claim. Never, ever has she presented evidence.
There are a range of points of view on this—there is no question about
that—and they are deeply held, but no-one has ever presented me with a shred
of evidence to demonstrate that what happens now is unsafe when we transfer
babies from King Edward Memorial Hospital to another hospital. That is what
happens now. No-one has presented a shred of
evidence to say to me that that is unsafe, but that is what the member is
saying now: what we do now is unsafe.
I will again put on the record some
evidence for the member for Vasse. A study was undertaken by a very senior Western
Australian neonatologist, and it was based on 38 studies and included 42 000
babies. It found that an overwhelming majority of studies do not support the
claims of the member for Vasse. For example, I will quote an article published
in 2015 by Saritha Paul and Steven Resnick titled ''Long-distance
transport of neonates with transposition of the great arteries for the arterial
switch operation: A 26-year Western Australian experience''. It reviewed
80 critical babies with complex heart defects, called transposition of the
great arteries, and it stated —
� long-distance transport of neonates
with TGA can be safely undertaken, with no evidence of increased transport
mortality/major morbidity or higher early surgical mortality.
The member for Vasse claims that
this government has not consulted experts, yet she willingly and wilfully
ignores that report. This is a senior neonatologist who teaches neonatologists
in Western Australia. In the chamber earlier in the year, I provided this
evidence, and she continues to ignore that advice.
The other advice that she continues
to ignore is that of the director general of Health. I know that she was
briefed on the risks of this project by the former director general of Health
because I facilitated that briefing. She was also provided advice by the new
director general in this chamber. It was very clearly articulated. Dr Shirley
Bowen, who was the chief executive of the North Metropolitan Health Service
prior to becoming the director general and was in charge of running Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital, said —
As the business case work became
evident to us, we realised that we would be significantly disrupting Sir
Charles Gairdner Hospital � the theatre block and the intensive care unit,
which would both be significantly disrupted by this build � Access to the
emergency departments would be limited for both Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
and Perth Children's Hospital � As an executive team, we all pondered
how we would be able to manage that service during that period. We delivered
the message to the minister that, should it continue to be built in its current
form, we had deep concerns about how we would deliver those services to the
people who need Sir Charles Gairdner.
The member for Vasse continues to
ignore that advice. We know that the Liberal Party will bring risk —
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : I would like to
be able to listen to the minister, but there seems to be some background noise
coming from upstairs.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : There is
a bit of noise coming from up in the gallery. Sorry, minister, carry on.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms A. SANDERSON : To conclude,
the member for Vasse needs to come clean about what services she is going to
disrupt, where she is going to put it, what surgeries she is going to cancel
and where she is going to put patients, visitors and the car park. We know that
the Liberal Party will deliver disarray and risk to the public health system.
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