❓ The Minister for Regional Development details how the Royalties for Regions program supports regional health services, highlighting investments in hospitals, GP recruitment, and initiatives like the Southern Inland Health Initiative. The answer also criticizes the previous Labor government's record on regional health.
AnsweredQoN 593Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROYALTIES
FOR REGIONS — REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES
593. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the
Minister for Regional Development:
Can the minister please provide an update on how the Liberal–National
government's royalties for regions program is supporting regional
health services?
FOR REGIONS — REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES
593. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the
Minister for Regional Development:
Can the minister please provide an update on how the Liberal–National
government's royalties for regions program is supporting regional
health services?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Central Wheatbelt for the question and
for her excellent leadership with the Minister for Health in delivering the
Southern Inland Health Initiative, which is a major change to the way we
deliver health and is certainly improving health services. In recent weeks the
opposition has made a lot of commentary about the Liberal–National
government's management of the state, and I think it is important to
put on the record exactly what has happened over the past five years in health,
particularly in regional Western Australia. No-one can drive around
metropolitan Perth without seeing the massive investment in health
infrastructure and health service delivery undertaken by the Minister for
Health and the Liberal–National government. In regional Western
Australia it is just the same. Back in 2008, Albany Hospital was promised at
election after election by the member for Albany when he was in government. The
Labor Party was never even close to delivering that hospital. I am absolutely
sure that if the Labor Party had taken the Treasury bench in 2008, that project
in Albany would not have happened. The same applies in Kalgoorlie and
Esperance. Again, there were plenty of promises and plenty of talk but no
action on pouring some concrete and getting underway to deliver the upgrades
that are vitally necessary for those communities.
Mr F.M. Logan :
Kind of like Geraldton.
Mr
B.J. GRYLLS : Geraldton is one hospital that the opposition did, but it
built it too small. Three or four years after doing it, it is already too
small. That is another classic case of the opposition's ineptitude at
managing regional health.
Since the Liberal–National
government came to power, the $161 million Albany Hospital was opened in May
2013. As well as that, there are additional mental health beds, improved
maternity services, improved day surgery services and a high-dependency unit at
the expanded emergency department. The major expansion of the Kalgoorlie health
campus is well down the track. In November 2012, the emergency department, the
high-dependency unit and the medical imaging department opened. One of my
favourite moments in politics was when the local traditional owner did the
welcome to country ceremony and he stood in front of the assembled community
and said that he felt like he was in Perth when he walked into Kalgoorlie
Hospital. That was exactly the intention of the Liberal–National
government—to try to replicate in major regional centres the type of
service delivery that is delivered in the metropolitan area. We are doing that
now in Kalgoorlie. We are doing that now in Albany.
Under the half a billion dollar
Southern Inland Health Initiative, regional hospitals in Collie, Katanning,
Narrogin, Manjimup, Merredin and Northam are being upgraded, and primary health
initiatives such as diabetes educators and mental health programs are being
implemented. We have focused on general practitioners. Everyone will remember
the massive shortage of GPs across regional Western Australia. People could not
get an appointment with their local doctor. Under the Southern Inland Health
Initiative, 27 new GPs are operating in regional Western Australia, reducing
the waiting time to see a GP and making sure that people can access primary
health. We have addressed aged care and community needs with the Albany
Community Hospice and the EON Foundation's Thriving Communities
program. We have put funds into the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Who can ever
forget Jim McGinty calling the Royal Flying Doctor Service an interest group?
Hon Jim McGinty is retired, so we do not have to talk about him, but where was
the condemnation by members opposite who sat in the chamber while their then
Minister for Health called the Flying Doctor an interest group? There was no
condemnation; they simply said, ''Bad luck, Flying Doctor; you're
just an interest group.'' It was the Liberal–National government
that put in millions and millions of dollars, with five new aeroplanes and a
narrower aeromedical jet, and funded the doctors and nurses to keep the Flying Doctor
and to reduce its response times in regional Western Australia.
The $160 million North West Health Initiative was announced
in this year's budget. It will focus on Newman, Roebourne, Onslow and
Tom Price to make sure that health services in those towns in the inland
Pilbara region are upgraded. It is important to understand exactly what we
found when we came to government. Christine O'Farrell, an important
health bureaucrat in Western Australia, was the boss of the WA Country Health
Service. When she retired, she was quoted in The West Australian on 26 March—I do not have the year, but
I will put it in Hansard later—as
saying that some parts of rural Western Australia had been left with ''blatantly
bloody unsafe'' health care. The boss of country health was saying that
the health system in regional Western Australia was blatantly bloody unsafe.
That is why the Minister for Health and the Liberal–National government
got on with the important job of rebuilding regional health and service
delivery through doctors, telehealth and new innovations in health delivery.
The government understands that blatantly bloody unsafe health care in regional
Western Australia is unacceptable. To give an idea of the Labor Party's
response to the comment that health care in regional Western Australia was ''blatantly
bloody unsafe'', Hon Jim McGinty said that was a rather intemperate
outburst. The former Labor government treated country people who needed to
access health services with absolute disdain. That is why the Liberal–National
government has made an unprecedented investment in regional health and that is
what has made a big difference to regional development.
for her excellent leadership with the Minister for Health in delivering the
Southern Inland Health Initiative, which is a major change to the way we
deliver health and is certainly improving health services. In recent weeks the
opposition has made a lot of commentary about the Liberal–National
government's management of the state, and I think it is important to
put on the record exactly what has happened over the past five years in health,
particularly in regional Western Australia. No-one can drive around
metropolitan Perth without seeing the massive investment in health
infrastructure and health service delivery undertaken by the Minister for
Health and the Liberal–National government. In regional Western
Australia it is just the same. Back in 2008, Albany Hospital was promised at
election after election by the member for Albany when he was in government. The
Labor Party was never even close to delivering that hospital. I am absolutely
sure that if the Labor Party had taken the Treasury bench in 2008, that project
in Albany would not have happened. The same applies in Kalgoorlie and
Esperance. Again, there were plenty of promises and plenty of talk but no
action on pouring some concrete and getting underway to deliver the upgrades
that are vitally necessary for those communities.
Mr F.M. Logan :
Kind of like Geraldton.
Mr
B.J. GRYLLS : Geraldton is one hospital that the opposition did, but it
built it too small. Three or four years after doing it, it is already too
small. That is another classic case of the opposition's ineptitude at
managing regional health.
Since the Liberal–National
government came to power, the $161 million Albany Hospital was opened in May
2013. As well as that, there are additional mental health beds, improved
maternity services, improved day surgery services and a high-dependency unit at
the expanded emergency department. The major expansion of the Kalgoorlie health
campus is well down the track. In November 2012, the emergency department, the
high-dependency unit and the medical imaging department opened. One of my
favourite moments in politics was when the local traditional owner did the
welcome to country ceremony and he stood in front of the assembled community
and said that he felt like he was in Perth when he walked into Kalgoorlie
Hospital. That was exactly the intention of the Liberal–National
government—to try to replicate in major regional centres the type of
service delivery that is delivered in the metropolitan area. We are doing that
now in Kalgoorlie. We are doing that now in Albany.
Under the half a billion dollar
Southern Inland Health Initiative, regional hospitals in Collie, Katanning,
Narrogin, Manjimup, Merredin and Northam are being upgraded, and primary health
initiatives such as diabetes educators and mental health programs are being
implemented. We have focused on general practitioners. Everyone will remember
the massive shortage of GPs across regional Western Australia. People could not
get an appointment with their local doctor. Under the Southern Inland Health
Initiative, 27 new GPs are operating in regional Western Australia, reducing
the waiting time to see a GP and making sure that people can access primary
health. We have addressed aged care and community needs with the Albany
Community Hospice and the EON Foundation's Thriving Communities
program. We have put funds into the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Who can ever
forget Jim McGinty calling the Royal Flying Doctor Service an interest group?
Hon Jim McGinty is retired, so we do not have to talk about him, but where was
the condemnation by members opposite who sat in the chamber while their then
Minister for Health called the Flying Doctor an interest group? There was no
condemnation; they simply said, ''Bad luck, Flying Doctor; you're
just an interest group.'' It was the Liberal–National government
that put in millions and millions of dollars, with five new aeroplanes and a
narrower aeromedical jet, and funded the doctors and nurses to keep the Flying Doctor
and to reduce its response times in regional Western Australia.
The $160 million North West Health Initiative was announced
in this year's budget. It will focus on Newman, Roebourne, Onslow and
Tom Price to make sure that health services in those towns in the inland
Pilbara region are upgraded. It is important to understand exactly what we
found when we came to government. Christine O'Farrell, an important
health bureaucrat in Western Australia, was the boss of the WA Country Health
Service. When she retired, she was quoted in The West Australian on 26 March—I do not have the year, but
I will put it in Hansard later—as
saying that some parts of rural Western Australia had been left with ''blatantly
bloody unsafe'' health care. The boss of country health was saying that
the health system in regional Western Australia was blatantly bloody unsafe.
That is why the Minister for Health and the Liberal–National government
got on with the important job of rebuilding regional health and service
delivery through doctors, telehealth and new innovations in health delivery.
The government understands that blatantly bloody unsafe health care in regional
Western Australia is unacceptable. To give an idea of the Labor Party's
response to the comment that health care in regional Western Australia was ''blatantly
bloody unsafe'', Hon Jim McGinty said that was a rather intemperate
outburst. The former Labor government treated country people who needed to
access health services with absolute disdain. That is why the Liberal–National
government has made an unprecedented investment in regional health and that is
what has made a big difference to regional development.
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