❓ The Minister for Health avoids directly answering the question about planned works at Royal Perth Hospital, instead focusing on criticizing the previous Labor government's alleged plans to close the hospital as a tertiary facility.
AnsweredQoN 324Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
STATE BUDGET 2012–13
— ROYAL PERTH HOSPITAL
324. Mr M.W. SUTHERLAND to the Minister for Health:
What work is to be undertaken on
Royal Perth Hospital with the money referred to in the 2012–13 state
budget, and how does that compare with Labor's plans for Royal Perth
Hospital when it was in government?
— ROYAL PERTH HOSPITAL
324. Mr M.W. SUTHERLAND to the Minister for Health:
What work is to be undertaken on
Royal Perth Hospital with the money referred to in the 2012–13 state
budget, and how does that compare with Labor's plans for Royal Perth
Hospital when it was in government?
AnswerView source ↗
That is an excellent question. It is an issue that members
will know very well. The reason that we are on this side of the house and the
reason that the member for Mount Lawley is in this place is Labor's
disastrous plan for Royal Perth Hospital and what it was going to do, when it
was going to shut down Royal Perth as a tertiary hospital. It is no good the
member for Perth shaking his head, because I am about to show him the proof
that Labor was going to shut it down as a tertiary hospital. Just last week we
were going to debate this during private members' business. The
opposition castigated me for the fact that we were going to do the work at
Royal Perth Hospital in our second term of government, and that was presented
as though this was some brand-new thing, some brand-new happening. Of course, I
prepared for that debate all the quotes from Hansard in which I have said on numerous occasions that it was
going to be in our second term of government—in debates in 2009, 2010,
2011 and 2012 over and over again. In a quote from 2011, I said —
My view is that we cannot start
any work there until everyone has moved out to Fiona Stanley Hospital; it would
be silly to do that. We have to wait until all those people have moved, which
is in 2014.
But let us see what the Labor Party
promised when it was talking about Royal Perth Hospital. I have a press
release, I presume, put out by the Labor Party in the lead-up to the 2005
election. This was after the Reid review said something along the lines that we
need to have one tertiary hospital—Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital or
Royal Perth Hospital. All the indications coming from Labor Party members were
that Royal Perth was going to be closed as a tertiary hospital and we would end
up with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. No less a person than Bill Johnston
authorised this press release.
Mr
C.J. Barnett : That'll be good—the most honest member of
Parliament!
Dr
K.D. HAMES : That is exactly right. This is what the Labor Party put out
when it went to the election in 2005. Labor Party members were worried about
shutting Royal Perth; they thought they would be in big trouble shutting Royal
Perth, and they were right. They guessed that that might be the trouble, so
when they went to the election in 2005, they said —
The Report also recommended that
Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) have a
single management and clinical structure across both hospitals.
Which is exactly right —
A single management and clinical
structure is now being implemented.
It goes on to say —
RPH will not close.
Then we get a bit further along the
track —
Dr
A.D. Buti : But it hasn't closed, has it?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Of course not, because we got into government. Oops! Own goal!
This is a comment by the Labor Party
in 2008 that talks about bed capacity. All members have to do is get to the
line for Royal Perth Hospital, and what does it say about beds? It says that
the bed capacity for Royal Perth Hospital at 31 January 2008 is 681. Under ''Clinical
Services Framework Planned Capacity'' it is zero. It is zero, zero,
zero, going out into all the out years—zero. I can give the member for
Perth a copy of this document if he likes, because I saw him shaking his head
when he talked about Royal Perth Hospital closing.
What the Labor Party was going to do with Royal Perth was
shut the whole thing down and have something like a GP clinic. We kept trying
to get out of Jim McGinty at the time what he was going to do there. His
argument was always about how terrible we were for keeping Royal Perth, how bad
the planning was, what a dreadful thing we were doing by promising to keep it open
and that he was going to close it down as a tertiary hospital. He had not
decided what he would have there; maybe a GP clinic but certainly not an
emergency department. He said over and again that the ED would shut down and
maybe there would be a GP clinic. As the debate moved on and we got closer and
closer to the election, he finally said we would have a GP clinic and maybe a
surgicentre. The remnants of the hospital on the north block was to be used to
do some waitlist surgery, and all the rest of the stuff was to be bowled over;
that is all they would keep. Certainly there would be no tertiary hospital, and
not even a secondary hospital, at that location.
Mr J.N. Hyde :
Rubbish! Four hundred beds!
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Does the member want me to find that document, too? I will give him that
document as well that says that in the lead-up to the election. In fact, if he
wants to get the transcripts from Geoff Hutchison just before the election when
he and I were doing a debate, he can read it for himself. That is the final
version: surgicentre for waitlist surgery and a GP clinic—that was it.
We promised to keep Royal Perth as a tertiary hospital and
that is exactly what we have done. It is in our clinical services framework and
that is what the people of Western Australia want. The members for Mount Lawley
and Morley in particular were absolutely incensed by the proposed closure of
Royal Perth Hospital.
As we move to the next election, it is quite clear that what
the shadow Minister for Health says cannot be trusted, but at some stage in the
lead-up to the next election he is going to have to say what he will do to
Royal Perth Hospital. He is going to have to say whether he will keep it as a
tertiary hospital or do what he was planning to do before, which is shut it
down, because that is what everyone thinks he is going to do, and that is what
I believe he will do.
will know very well. The reason that we are on this side of the house and the
reason that the member for Mount Lawley is in this place is Labor's
disastrous plan for Royal Perth Hospital and what it was going to do, when it
was going to shut down Royal Perth as a tertiary hospital. It is no good the
member for Perth shaking his head, because I am about to show him the proof
that Labor was going to shut it down as a tertiary hospital. Just last week we
were going to debate this during private members' business. The
opposition castigated me for the fact that we were going to do the work at
Royal Perth Hospital in our second term of government, and that was presented
as though this was some brand-new thing, some brand-new happening. Of course, I
prepared for that debate all the quotes from Hansard in which I have said on numerous occasions that it was
going to be in our second term of government—in debates in 2009, 2010,
2011 and 2012 over and over again. In a quote from 2011, I said —
My view is that we cannot start
any work there until everyone has moved out to Fiona Stanley Hospital; it would
be silly to do that. We have to wait until all those people have moved, which
is in 2014.
But let us see what the Labor Party
promised when it was talking about Royal Perth Hospital. I have a press
release, I presume, put out by the Labor Party in the lead-up to the 2005
election. This was after the Reid review said something along the lines that we
need to have one tertiary hospital—Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital or
Royal Perth Hospital. All the indications coming from Labor Party members were
that Royal Perth was going to be closed as a tertiary hospital and we would end
up with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. No less a person than Bill Johnston
authorised this press release.
Mr
C.J. Barnett : That'll be good—the most honest member of
Parliament!
Dr
K.D. HAMES : That is exactly right. This is what the Labor Party put out
when it went to the election in 2005. Labor Party members were worried about
shutting Royal Perth; they thought they would be in big trouble shutting Royal
Perth, and they were right. They guessed that that might be the trouble, so
when they went to the election in 2005, they said —
The Report also recommended that
Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) have a
single management and clinical structure across both hospitals.
Which is exactly right —
A single management and clinical
structure is now being implemented.
It goes on to say —
RPH will not close.
Then we get a bit further along the
track —
Dr
A.D. Buti : But it hasn't closed, has it?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Of course not, because we got into government. Oops! Own goal!
This is a comment by the Labor Party
in 2008 that talks about bed capacity. All members have to do is get to the
line for Royal Perth Hospital, and what does it say about beds? It says that
the bed capacity for Royal Perth Hospital at 31 January 2008 is 681. Under ''Clinical
Services Framework Planned Capacity'' it is zero. It is zero, zero,
zero, going out into all the out years—zero. I can give the member for
Perth a copy of this document if he likes, because I saw him shaking his head
when he talked about Royal Perth Hospital closing.
What the Labor Party was going to do with Royal Perth was
shut the whole thing down and have something like a GP clinic. We kept trying
to get out of Jim McGinty at the time what he was going to do there. His
argument was always about how terrible we were for keeping Royal Perth, how bad
the planning was, what a dreadful thing we were doing by promising to keep it open
and that he was going to close it down as a tertiary hospital. He had not
decided what he would have there; maybe a GP clinic but certainly not an
emergency department. He said over and again that the ED would shut down and
maybe there would be a GP clinic. As the debate moved on and we got closer and
closer to the election, he finally said we would have a GP clinic and maybe a
surgicentre. The remnants of the hospital on the north block was to be used to
do some waitlist surgery, and all the rest of the stuff was to be bowled over;
that is all they would keep. Certainly there would be no tertiary hospital, and
not even a secondary hospital, at that location.
Mr J.N. Hyde :
Rubbish! Four hundred beds!
Dr K.D. HAMES :
Does the member want me to find that document, too? I will give him that
document as well that says that in the lead-up to the election. In fact, if he
wants to get the transcripts from Geoff Hutchison just before the election when
he and I were doing a debate, he can read it for himself. That is the final
version: surgicentre for waitlist surgery and a GP clinic—that was it.
We promised to keep Royal Perth as a tertiary hospital and
that is exactly what we have done. It is in our clinical services framework and
that is what the people of Western Australia want. The members for Mount Lawley
and Morley in particular were absolutely incensed by the proposed closure of
Royal Perth Hospital.
As we move to the next election, it is quite clear that what
the shadow Minister for Health says cannot be trusted, but at some stage in the
lead-up to the next election he is going to have to say what he will do to
Royal Perth Hospital. He is going to have to say whether he will keep it as a
tertiary hospital or do what he was planning to do before, which is shut it
down, because that is what everyone thinks he is going to do, and that is what
I believe he will do.
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