❓ Mr Board questions the Minister for Health about increased ambulance bypass times at Perth's major hospitals. The Minister responds by citing a decrease in diversion hours and highlighting pressures on emergency departments, attributing the problem to a lack of available beds.
AnsweredQoN 1040Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) Is the minister aware that, according to the latest St John Ambulance figures, Perth’s major teaching hospitals were on ambulance bypass for nearly 8 000 more minutes in 2002-03 than in the previous financial year? (2) Is the minister further aware that last month alone, all three teaching hospitals went on simultaneous bypass - that is, a triple bypass - an unprecedented 18 times? (3) Will the minister accept responsibility for relieving this situation and put pressure on the Treasurer to really make health a priority of this Government and to provide the additional resources that are needed to alleviate the pressures on those hospitals and the community? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(2) Is the minister further aware that last month alone, all three teaching hospitals went on simultaneous bypass - that is, a triple bypass - an unprecedented 18 times? (3) Will the minister accept responsibility for relieving this situation and put pressure on the Treasurer to really make health a priority of this Government and to provide the additional resources that are needed to alleviate the pressures on those hospitals and the community? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(3) Will the minister accept responsibility for relieving this situation and put pressure on the Treasurer to really make health a priority of this Government and to provide the additional resources that are needed to alleviate the pressures on those hospitals and the community? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(2) Is the minister further aware that last month alone, all three teaching hospitals went on simultaneous bypass - that is, a triple bypass - an unprecedented 18 times? (3) Will the minister accept responsibility for relieving this situation and put pressure on the Treasurer to really make health a priority of this Government and to provide the additional resources that are needed to alleviate the pressures on those hospitals and the community? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(3) Will the minister accept responsibility for relieving this situation and put pressure on the Treasurer to really make health a priority of this Government and to provide the additional resources that are needed to alleviate the pressures on those hospitals and the community? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
(1)-(3) There are a number of statistics that one can easily throw around about the emergency departments. The member for Murdoch may be more interested in the fact that a comparison between August 2003 and August 2002 shows that for all metropolitan public emergency departments, excluding, obviously, Joondalup and Peel, there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the total number of hours that hospitals have been on diversion. That is a one-third reduction. Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board: That is not what St John Ambulance is saying. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes, it is. The member should look at that figure. There has been a 33 per cent reduction in the number of hours spent on diversion or bypass in this State when the figures for August 2003 are compared with those for August last year. We are comparing like with like. Quite a few figures can be thrown around. I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
I will make a point about yesterday. I made a point earlier that there is no doubt that our emergency departments are under great pressure, particularly at this time of the year. Yesterday 113 people presented at Fremantle Hospital’s emergency department, 117 at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and 149 at Royal Perth Hospital; that is, a total of 379 individuals presented at the emergency departments of those hospitals yesterday. Obviously, those hospitals were under enormous pressure. That figure is a lot higher than the average. The Government is trying to consult with the doctors and nurses in the emergency departments - the people on the front-line - to find out from them first-hand how we can most effectively deal with this problem. There will always be exceptional circumstances, such as when the burn victims were flown in from Bali and when the plane crashed at Jandakot a month ago, which placed exceptional pressures on our emergency departments. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
The SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weekends ago at the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department and spoke with the people on the front-line about how the Government can best deal with this problem. There will always be the obvious things such as getting the elderly - the care awaiting placement patients - out of our emergency departments, rescheduling elective surgery so that it peaks during the summer months when pressure is not on admissions through the emergency departments, the greater use of the outer metropolitan hospitals, the greater use of general practitioners when they are available, and all those things. Do members know what those people say? The one crucial issue that must be addressed if the Government is to effectively deal with this problem is the availability of more beds. The problem is not in the emergency departments themselves, but in getting people out through the emergency departments and into beds in the hospitals. It is very interesting. There was a decline in the number of tertiary beds in our three big teaching hospitals - Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner and Fremantle. In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds in the metropolitan area. By 2001 - Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Total beds? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: Tertiary beds. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: Which hospitals are you talking about? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: The tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area. Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board: Where did the beds go? Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: If the member for Murdoch just listened to me, he would learn. I will repeat that point again, because I was disrupted. Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
The SPEAKER: Order, member! Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: In 1991 there were 2 068 tertiary beds at Royal Perth Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Fremantle Hospital. By 2001, a decade later, that number had declined by 342 to 1 726 beds. I agree completely with what the member for Murdoch is now saying. It is the exact opposite of what he did when he was in government. To the extent that it is possible to pursue this new found accord, I will be delighted to do so. There are now 1 726 tertiary beds, which is 342 fewer than were available a decade ago. There are now 224 fewer beds at Royal Perth Hospital alone than there were at the beginning of the 1990s. It is no wonder that Royal Perth Hospital is under more pressure than anywhere else, because, during the 1990s, the capacity to get people out of the emergency departments and into beds in those hospitals was taken away. I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
I hope that in the next week or two we will be able to open an extra 19 beds in the East Metropolitan Region, nine of which will be at Royal Perth Hospital and have previously been mentioned. However, the winter flu has struck not only the broad community but also hospital staff. I notice that a number of members are not in the Chamber today and I presume the winter flu is the reason for that. We have not been able to recruit sufficient nurses to be able to open the additional nine beds at Royal Perth Hospital we spoke about. One of the ideas raised with me by Dr Michelle Johnston, head of the emergency department at the Swan District Hospital, when I met with her and other staff at the Royal Perth Hospital recently was the opening of a number of beds at the Swan District Hospital; the number of beds there is currently capped because of the medical staff establishment. We are in the process now of trying to recruit an additional physician to that hospital to enable the use of an extra 10 beds. If those two aims can be achieved, that will have the effect of opening 19 extra beds where, through the emergency department, patients can be accommodated at Royal Perth Hospital. They are concrete efforts that are being made. We are meeting on a seemingly daily basis on this issue trying to find satisfactory solutions to overcome the running down of the number of beds in the acute hospitals that members opposite presided over during the 1990s.
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