❓ Ms. Mettam questions the Minister for Health about relocating the Women's and Babies' Hospital to Murdoch, referencing the government's backflip on the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. The Minister defends the decision based on risk mitigation and service expansion.
AnsweredQoN 893Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WOMEN'S AND
BABIES' HOSPITAL — RELOCATION
893. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the long-awaited repeal
this week of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. Given the Cook Labor
government has demonstrated its willingness to backflip on this disastrous
decision, will the minister now listen to the chorus of experts —
The SPEAKER : Order! Sorry,
members. This will be the longest question time ever if we are going to have
questions interjected on. Please do not interject. Can we have the question,
please.
Ms L. METTAM : Given the Cook
Labor government has demonstrated its willingness to backflip on this
disastrous decision, will the minister now listen to the chorus of experts and
reverse her decision to relocate the women's and babies'
hospital to Murdoch?
BABIES' HOSPITAL — RELOCATION
893. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the long-awaited repeal
this week of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. Given the Cook Labor
government has demonstrated its willingness to backflip on this disastrous
decision, will the minister now listen to the chorus of experts —
The SPEAKER : Order! Sorry,
members. This will be the longest question time ever if we are going to have
questions interjected on. Please do not interject. Can we have the question,
please.
Ms L. METTAM : Given the Cook
Labor government has demonstrated its willingness to backflip on this
disastrous decision, will the minister now listen to the chorus of experts and
reverse her decision to relocate the women's and babies'
hospital to Murdoch?
AnswerView source ↗
When members are in government,
they have to listen to all the points of views of experts. They are often
varied and wide. That is the challenge of
government and the challenge of decision-making. We have to balance up risk . Essentially, government is about managing
risks, and delivering large infrastructure projects in a healthcare setting is about managing risks. When the former
cabinet, me and the former Premier, and the current cabinet were faced with a business case that outlined un-mitigatable
risks to access two significant major tertiary hospitals, and un-mitigatable risks to staff—mostly
nursing staff—who were essentially assigned to a shuttle bus for 10
years to be able to access their
workplace, that represented a serious attraction and retention risk for staff
at Perth Children's Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
It was also a serious risk to getting major equipment onto the site to build
the hospital, a serious risk with relocating out-patient services, a serious
risk to construction activity and very sensitive equipment and a serious risk
to elective surgery because of the link with out-patient appointments. We could
not ignore that risk; it would have been irresponsible to ignore that risk.
We made the only responsible
decision, which was to locate the women's and newborns'
hospital on a greenfield site where there would be no risk to those existing
services and where we could build it quicker and within the allocated budget.
On top of that, we could significantly expand the services in the northern
suburbs to allow northern suburbs families
better and quicker access to a wider range of maternity services. Those are the
risks that we had to weigh up, and that is why we made the responsible
decision to build the hospital at the Murdoch site.
The SPEAKER : That concludes
question time.
they have to listen to all the points of views of experts. They are often
varied and wide. That is the challenge of
government and the challenge of decision-making. We have to balance up risk . Essentially, government is about managing
risks, and delivering large infrastructure projects in a healthcare setting is about managing risks. When the former
cabinet, me and the former Premier, and the current cabinet were faced with a business case that outlined un-mitigatable
risks to access two significant major tertiary hospitals, and un-mitigatable risks to staff—mostly
nursing staff—who were essentially assigned to a shuttle bus for 10
years to be able to access their
workplace, that represented a serious attraction and retention risk for staff
at Perth Children's Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
It was also a serious risk to getting major equipment onto the site to build
the hospital, a serious risk with relocating out-patient services, a serious
risk to construction activity and very sensitive equipment and a serious risk
to elective surgery because of the link with out-patient appointments. We could
not ignore that risk; it would have been irresponsible to ignore that risk.
We made the only responsible
decision, which was to locate the women's and newborns'
hospital on a greenfield site where there would be no risk to those existing
services and where we could build it quicker and within the allocated budget.
On top of that, we could significantly expand the services in the northern
suburbs to allow northern suburbs families
better and quicker access to a wider range of maternity services. Those are the
risks that we had to weigh up, and that is why we made the responsible
decision to build the hospital at the Murdoch site.
The SPEAKER : That concludes
question time.
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