❓ Mr. Blayney asks about the progress of engaging nurses under the Southern Inland Health Initiative. The Minister responds with details of funding, doctor recruitment, and nurse practitioner deployment, also mentioning upgrades to remote Indigenous community healthcare facilities.
AnsweredQoN 142Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SOUTHERN INLAND
HEALTH INITIATIVE — NURSES
142. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
I am very interested in the progress
in getting the southern inland health initiative up and running as it will make
a big difference in the southern parts of the state. I know that the minister
has already engaged some doctors, with many more to follow, but could the
minister please update the house on where he is up to with engaging nurses
under the initiative?
HEALTH INITIATIVE — NURSES
142. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
I am very interested in the progress
in getting the southern inland health initiative up and running as it will make
a big difference in the southern parts of the state. I know that the minister
has already engaged some doctors, with many more to follow, but could the
minister please update the house on where he is up to with engaging nurses
under the initiative?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. As the member knows, the
magnificent southern inland health package is funded by $565 million from the
royalties for regions fund and it is designed to totally transform the way we
deliver health services through the middle part of Western Australia,
stretching right down to Esperance. We have been actively pursuing the
employment of doctors. So far we have seven new doctors who will start work
under that program. That will help those practices that struggled to get
support in the past and those local governments that have gone out and spent
enormous amounts of money to try to attract and hold doctors in the area. Seven
new doctors will start in that area. A significant number of nurse
practitioners have been doing their work and we hope they will proceed very
soon into those new areas.
We are actively seeking further emergency nurse practitioners
across the wheatbelt, the great southern, the goldfields and the south west
regions. That does not mean that we are ignoring the northern part of the
state; we have spent additional funding in that region, particularly in remote
Indigenous communities. An amount of $22.2 million from the royalties for
regions fund has been allocated to upgrade remote Indigenous communities. I was
very keen on that after visiting Mulan out near Balgo and seeing the very poor
standard of the healthcare service facilities provided in that location. We
will put extra facilities in Bayulu, Mulan, Mindibungu, also known as
Billiluna, Wakathuni and Noonkanbah. Significant new facilities will go into
those areas.
The changes we are able to make through the funding under
this program are moving forward exceptionally well. We are at the stage of
designing upgrades to hospitals and providing new facilities, such as clinics,
through those areas. The most important part is that we have been able to get
those new doctors started. We are very confident that we can grow both the
doctors and nurse practitioners to provide a service through that region that
they have never seen the like of in the past.
magnificent southern inland health package is funded by $565 million from the
royalties for regions fund and it is designed to totally transform the way we
deliver health services through the middle part of Western Australia,
stretching right down to Esperance. We have been actively pursuing the
employment of doctors. So far we have seven new doctors who will start work
under that program. That will help those practices that struggled to get
support in the past and those local governments that have gone out and spent
enormous amounts of money to try to attract and hold doctors in the area. Seven
new doctors will start in that area. A significant number of nurse
practitioners have been doing their work and we hope they will proceed very
soon into those new areas.
We are actively seeking further emergency nurse practitioners
across the wheatbelt, the great southern, the goldfields and the south west
regions. That does not mean that we are ignoring the northern part of the
state; we have spent additional funding in that region, particularly in remote
Indigenous communities. An amount of $22.2 million from the royalties for
regions fund has been allocated to upgrade remote Indigenous communities. I was
very keen on that after visiting Mulan out near Balgo and seeing the very poor
standard of the healthcare service facilities provided in that location. We
will put extra facilities in Bayulu, Mulan, Mindibungu, also known as
Billiluna, Wakathuni and Noonkanbah. Significant new facilities will go into
those areas.
The changes we are able to make through the funding under
this program are moving forward exceptionally well. We are at the stage of
designing upgrades to hospitals and providing new facilities, such as clinics,
through those areas. The most important part is that we have been able to get
those new doctors started. We are very confident that we can grow both the
doctors and nurse practitioners to provide a service through that region that
they have never seen the like of in the past.
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