New taskforce, $252m to fix "under-pressure" hospitals

A new ministerial taskforce will oversee the distribution of $252 million to address the growing pressure on the state’s emergency departments and ambulance ramping, as COVID case numbers continue to decline.

This morning, Premier Mark McGowan announced the state budget allocation would include $55.8 million for the recruitment of additional registered nurses in emergency departments and $18.2 million for a new triage system.

More than $74 million will be spent on care coordination for complex patients, including the elderly and disabled, and their transition into more appropriate care, with 120 new aged-care beds.

A total of $55.2 million will be allocated to the expansion of telehealth, including home monitoring, and the expansion of an Emergency Medicine Service, a virtual triage system first established by Fiona Stanley Hospital.

In addition, a $32.5 million emergency department fund will be established to decrease alcohol, drug and eating disorder-related presentations.

A business case will also be developed for the creation of a State Health Operation Centre, which will allow the diversion of low-risk emergency presentations to specialist services and better coordinate between regional and metropolitan health services.

The taskforce, chaired by Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, will oversee the implementation of 17 initiatives, all of which Mr McGowan said were designed to improve patient flow, divert emergency presentations and reduce pressure on the state’s emergency departments.

“Over the course of, particularly in the last couple of years, our emergency departments have been under a lot of pressure and a lot of strain,” he said.

“There have been a lot of reasons for that, partly because a lot of the staff have been furloughed with COVID or as close contracts. 

“We've had difficulty recruiting staff because of closed international borders and sometimes closed state borders and that has put pressure on our hospitals, in particular, our emergency departments.

“We've been flooded with additional demand and then there's all of the precautionary measures staff have to put in place by changing PPE and the time pressures that that puts on our staff and our hospitals.

“Because of the circumstances we face at the moment, we’re really in unprecedented times in terms of demand and the pressures on our emergency departments and that’s why we want to make sure that we invest significant amounts of money in improving that.”

Ms Sanderson said the state was fully committed to tackling the underlying issues causing strain on emergency departments and improving patient outcomes.

The funding announcement comes as ambulance ramping times doubled in 2021 and just days after St John Ambulance WA’s chief executive Michelle Fyfe confirmed the state’s health system was under pressure and the need for better resourcing in regional WA.

It comes as Mr McGowan confirmed there had been a “significant decline” in daily case numbers compared to those reported in previous weeks, with 5,847 new infections recorded overnight.

Of those, 240 are in hospital and six are receiving treatment in ICU.

With the new close contact protocols now in full swing, the state government has also announced the release of ten free Rapid Antigen Tests for confirmed asymptomatic close contacts.