❓ Ms. Brewer questions the Minister for Health about elective surgery cancellations due to high demand. The Minister acknowledges the issue, citing unprecedented demand, aged care bed shortages, and thanks healthcare workers.
AnsweredQoN 381Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Hospitals—Elective surgery cancellations
381. Ms Sandra Brewer to
the Minister for Health:
I refer to a second
day of elective surgeries being cancelled, which has caused unnecessary stress
for patients. How many elective surgeries have now been cancelled and have all
these surgeries been rescheduled?
381. Ms Sandra Brewer to
the Minister for Health:
I refer to a second
day of elective surgeries being cancelled, which has caused unnecessary stress
for patients. How many elective surgeries have now been cancelled and have all
these surgeries been rescheduled?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member
for the question. Of course, we are dealing with an unprecedented level of
demand in our system, as I explained yesterday. We have seen very high levels
of demand on our health system. More than a thousand 000 calls came in on
Monday and it included one of the busiest periods of priority 1 call-outs on
record. We have been working our way through a very difficult winter season. We
have had high levels of flu as well. I want to acknowledge the frustration of
those people who have had surgeries rescheduled as we cope with this
unprecedented demand. I know that it is very frustrating for them, but we are
working through and making sure that in this very busy period we are managing the
demands on our system so that those people with the most urgent need for care
get access first.
One of the things
that is important—the Premier responded earlier about the importance of
aged-care beds—is recognising that one of the demands on our system
comes from the number of older Western Australians in hospital who are ready
for discharge but who cannot be discharged to suitable care. There are more than
320 of them. That is a very high number. As a result, we have had to respond. We
proactively rescheduled about 80 surgeries yesterday to free up capacity in our
hospitals to deal with that emergency demand. The Department of Health is
monitoring the system very closely and is continuing to make decisions so that
we can monitor the demand. The department today has scaled up non-urgent
surgery—so the priority 2 and 3 surgeries—but it is continuing
to manage the demand in the system. It will
continue to monitor that very closely over the coming days to make sure that
we can meet the needs of the most urgent cases in our system.
I want to thank the
health workers who are managing a very difficult period in our system—all
the people throughout the Department of Health and our health service providers
in our hospitals—because it is a very difficult time. People are
monitoring the situation very closely and making important decisions to ensure
that we manage our system to get the best outcomes for the people of Western
Australia.
for the question. Of course, we are dealing with an unprecedented level of
demand in our system, as I explained yesterday. We have seen very high levels
of demand on our health system. More than a thousand 000 calls came in on
Monday and it included one of the busiest periods of priority 1 call-outs on
record. We have been working our way through a very difficult winter season. We
have had high levels of flu as well. I want to acknowledge the frustration of
those people who have had surgeries rescheduled as we cope with this
unprecedented demand. I know that it is very frustrating for them, but we are
working through and making sure that in this very busy period we are managing the
demands on our system so that those people with the most urgent need for care
get access first.
One of the things
that is important—the Premier responded earlier about the importance of
aged-care beds—is recognising that one of the demands on our system
comes from the number of older Western Australians in hospital who are ready
for discharge but who cannot be discharged to suitable care. There are more than
320 of them. That is a very high number. As a result, we have had to respond. We
proactively rescheduled about 80 surgeries yesterday to free up capacity in our
hospitals to deal with that emergency demand. The Department of Health is
monitoring the system very closely and is continuing to make decisions so that
we can monitor the demand. The department today has scaled up non-urgent
surgery—so the priority 2 and 3 surgeries—but it is continuing
to manage the demand in the system. It will
continue to monitor that very closely over the coming days to make sure that
we can meet the needs of the most urgent cases in our system.
I want to thank the
health workers who are managing a very difficult period in our system—all
the people throughout the Department of Health and our health service providers
in our hospitals—because it is a very difficult time. People are
monitoring the situation very closely and making important decisions to ensure
that we manage our system to get the best outcomes for the people of Western
Australia.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.