Health remains a central issue in the West Australian state election campaign, with both major parties making new commitments. Labor has pledged to expand programs aimed at reducing hospital admissions, while the Liberals have promised additional resources for eating disorder treatment.
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00:00The health of the state's health system is always a political problem.
00:07Fixing our state's public hospitals is a number one priority.
00:10What we're actually seeing is a hospital system under stress, a hospital system in crisis
00:14and the Barnett government simply doesn't care.
00:17A decade on the system's under even greater stress but Labor says this time it's got a
00:21plan to make a difference, including expanding the virtual emergency department service to
00:26babies and some people in regional WA.
00:29It tries to divert people who call 000 away from hospitals by connecting them with a doctor
00:34via telehealth.
00:35Around about 75% of people who have referred to the WA virtual ED do not need an ambulance
00:42to take them to the ED and that's obviously an incredibly important part of reducing the
00:47pressure on EDs.
00:50Labor also promising $105 million to redevelop Midland Hospital's emergency department and
00:56a hotline to connect GPs with specialists.
00:59It's doing things differently and avoiding actually turning up to an emergency department
01:04and it's supporting our primary care colleagues to see their patients.
01:07The Liberals stuck with the health theme, promising $34 million for a residential eating
01:12disorder facility at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
01:15Leader Libby Metham made the promise alongside Deanne DeMere-Brown, whose daughter is being
01:19treated for an eating disorder in Queensland.
01:22She's in Queensland because we don't have a dedicated eating disorder facility over here.
01:27In a state as rich as Western Australia we should be able to offer this care given we
01:32know eating disorders are the most preventable but can also be the most deadly of mental
01:37health disorders.
01:39The problem for all sides though is demand for health care is only ever increasing as
01:44is the cost of providing it, with no clear solution in sight.
01:48That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try harder and to get things right.
01:52We need to do better on preventive health.
01:55We need to do better on supporting general practice so they can keep patients out of hospital.
02:00An age-old issue unlikely to be solved any time soon.