❓ Question regarding concerns about the maternity section redevelopment at Albany Regional Hospital, specifically regarding consultation with staff and adequacy of facilities. The Minister responds by stating that maternity bed numbers will increase and consultation is ongoing.
AnsweredQoN 304Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ALBANY REGIONAL HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT — MATERNITY SECTION
During a visit to Albany on Monday of this week, the Leader of the Opposition was inundated with complaints from mothers and maternity staff about the plans for, and the lack of consultation regarding, the maternity section of the proposed Albany Regional Hospital redevelopment. An email received by the opposition today states that all the midwives are extremely disappointed and distressed by the unfolding events of this refurbishment which will lead to a substandard facility for their families who for decades have put up with an outdated facility. (1) Given the long delay in starting this hospital, despite the minister’s pre-election promises, why has the minister still not consulted maternity staff? (2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY
During a visit to Albany on Monday of this week, the Leader of the Opposition was inundated with complaints from mothers and maternity staff about the plans for, and the lack of consultation regarding, the maternity section of the proposed Albany Regional Hospital redevelopment. An email received by the opposition today states that all the midwives are extremely disappointed and distressed by the unfolding events of this refurbishment which will lead to a substandard facility for their families who for decades have put up with an outdated facility. (1) Given the long delay in starting this hospital, despite the minister’s pre-election promises, why has the minister still not consulted maternity staff? (2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(1) Given the long delay in starting this hospital, despite the minister’s pre-election promises, why has the minister still not consulted maternity staff? (2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(1) Given the long delay in starting this hospital, despite the minister’s pre-election promises, why has the minister still not consulted maternity staff? (2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(2) Will the minister immediately review the proposed redevelopment to ensure that mothers and hospital staff in Albany are given adequate facilities? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
(1)-(2) Contrary to reports, the number of maternity beds at the Albany Regional Hospital will increase. Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr T. Buswell : No, it will not. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Leader of the Opposition has obviously been down there misleading people. The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : Let me answer the question. I will give the information, and then I will be happy to take interjections from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany Regional Hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : Order, members! It is clear that such interjections are designed to create a break in the answer. I caution the Leader of the Opposition about that tactic. I do not need to warn the member for Roe anymore, because he is on his last call. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : If the member for Roe wishes to go out, I can arrange that for him now. Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : The Albany hospital currently has seven dedicated and staffed maternity beds. In addition, a further three beds in the adjacent surgical ward are used for surge-capacity, which brings the number of beds that can be used for maternity purposes to a total of 10. I make this point. The bed occupancy rate in the maternity section at Albany Regional Hospital is running at 65 per cent. As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
As part of the consultation about the redevelopment that will start this year at Albany hospital, we are currently in the process of consulting staff and showing them the plans and indicating that the number of beds available for maternity purposes will be increased to 11—that is an increase of one on the current allocation. Seven dedicated and staffed beds will be retained exclusively for maternity purposes. During his visit to the Albany hospital, the Leader of the Opposition will have seen that the surgical ward immediately adjacent to the maternity ward has an area that can be closed off by means of a door. We propose to increase the number of surge-beds, or the swing-capacity, by one, thereby increasing the number of available maternity beds at the hospital from the current 10 to 11. Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Those people who were trying to suggest that there has been a reduction in the maternity capacity at Albany Regional Hospital are completely wrong. Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr K.D. Hames : Why are the staff so upset? Why are they sending emails? It just doesn’t make sense. The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : Maybe the Leader of the Opposition misled them. I am just saying that these are the facts. This is what has been presented to the staff as part of the consultation. Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Dr K.D. Hames : The facts are that they say that they haven’t been consulted properly. The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
The SPEAKER : I am sure that the minister is keen to hear constant interjections about what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition thinks the situation is! I think the minister is endeavouring to outline the actual situation. Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : I met with the maternity staff at the hospital a couple of months ago. Dr Lorri Spurgeon put to me views on what should be included in the development. I had a very lengthy meeting with nurses at the hospital for—the member for Albany can probably correct me if I am wrong—an hour and a half. Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr P.B. Watson : It was. Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
Mr J.A. McGINTY : We discussed what was involved and how the plans would work out. I assured them that they would be consulted once we had worked up plans for what was involved. The staff made some very good suggestions. One single-bed room was proposed to be located next to the preparation area in the maternity section of Albany Regional Hospital. The view that was put was that it would be too noisy. As a result of feedback from the staff after consultation, we are now looking at using that room as a much-needed office for the midwives who go out into the community and allocating another bed in another part of the hospital to make up for the shortage of a bed. That is part of the consultation process that results from showing staff the plans and seeking feedback on what they would like to see happen at the hospital. I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
I will conclude my comments on the issue of the swing-bed capacity on this note: in my electorate of Fremantle, Kaleeya Hospital, which has a maternity section, does exactly that. It has a fixed number of beds—from memory, it is either 12 or 13—for maternity patients and down the corridor is a surgical wing of the hospital. The overflow of patients move into the surgical wing of the hospital when there is more demand. From memory, there were two occasions last month when there were more than seven women in the maternity section of Albany hospital. In the month before that, April, there were four women. There are regular occurrences on a monthly basis when the number of patients at the hospital exceeds the number of dedicated maternity beds. Exactly the same practice applies at Kaleeya Hospital. When those beds are occupied, they become part of the maternity services provided at the hospital. In fact, 12.5 per cent of patients who have been admitted to the maternity ward at Albany hospital in the past year have not been maternity patients. That has occurred because there has been pressure on medical or surgical wards and there have been spare beds in the maternity facility. Big changes will occur in maternity services. There will be more single rooms and more rooms with ensuites, which the hospital does not currently have because of the old design. The hospital currently has three delivery rooms—or two and a half in my view—and only one has an ensuite. That is my recollection of the hospital after visiting it recently. We are proposing to provide ensuites in not only individual bedrooms for the patients, but also each delivery room that will be available at the hospital. There also will be further increased capacity by using one of the delivery rooms as a patient room. I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
I say to the staff at the hospital that we are in the process of consultation. I have met with the staff personally. I have been to the maternity ward and spoken about these issues with not only the nursing staff at the hospital, but also general practitioner obstetricians from Albany. We have discussed all these matters and we are seeking their input. They are providing us with valuable input. We are seeking to make changes to the plans to incorporate that input. However, those people who mislead the public should be ashamed of themselves.
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