{"id":58862,"date":"2025-10-03T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58862\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:36:09","slug":"former-health-boss-says-a-new-hospital-wont-fix-was-health-crisis-amid-record-ambulance-ramping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58862\/","title":{"rendered":"Former health boss says a new hospital won’t fix WA’s health crisis amid record ambulance ramping"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man tasked with reviewing WA’s “old and depleted”<\/a> hospitals says building a brand new one is not the silver bullet to fix a snowballing health crisis, despite urgent calls from frontline staff.<\/p>\n

This week exposed yet another example of the incredible strain being put on the health system by way of a third straight month of record ambulance ramping.<\/a><\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, 10 years ago, when Premier Roger Cook was in opposition, he lambasted the government of the day for the <\/a>surging number of ambulances lined up <\/a>in front of hospitals.<\/a><\/p>\n

Back then, ambulances spent less than 500 hours in an ED queue crunch.<\/p>\n

Last month that figure was 7,257 hours, a 14-fold increase.<\/p>\n

\"Ambulances<\/p>\n

Ambulance ramping hours have exceeded 7,000 for three consecutive months. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

Dr Neale Fong was a veteran health public servant then and now has more than 35 years’ experience under his belt.<\/p>\n

He said a new hospital is not the answer to relieving that pressure.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just about hospitals,” said Dr Fong, who is leading a snap audit and review into hospital maintenance.<\/p>\n

“Yes, there may well need to be more hospital beds, but we need more support services in the early parts of people’s illness trajectory \u2026 it’s not always about beds.”<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

Dr Neale Fong says building a new hospital will not solve WA’s health crisis. (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

Flu blamed for record ramping<\/p>\n

The government has blamed this winters’ horror flu season for the ramping record<\/a> \u2014 which has been on a steep incline since 2021 \u2014 something Dr Fong agreed was a major factor.<\/p>\n

But he said a growing and aging population were the main driving forces.<\/p>\n

“More people and an older population \u2026 means that there’ll be more demands on our healthcare system,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The capacity then gets stretched, whether that be in hospital beds or whether it be in staff, aged care beds \u2026 all of those factors are coming together to cause the issues that we’re now facing.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a north-south metropolitan area that is very long and it needs to service people, but it doesn’t always need to be serviced with another major tertiary hospital.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The state government has attributed record ramping hours to the severe flu season. (ABC News: Jessica Warriner)<\/p>\n

Calls for new hospital<\/p>\n

Dr Fong’s position is at odds with senior WA emergency department doctor Dr Peter Allely<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

“All of my colleagues in Western Australia and emergency departments very much long and wish for the premier of Western Australia to be standing in front of a brand new hospital in seven years’ time, opening a thousand-bed hospital for us,” Dr Allely told the ABC last month.<\/p>\n

The premier wasn’t as keen on that timeline, but acknowledged the next new hospital would likely be built in Perth’s far north, next to the Yanchep train station.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Drone<\/p>\n

The site purchased by the WA Planning Commission for a hospital in Yanchep. (ABC News: Glyn Jones )<\/p>\n

In the meantime, calls from frontline workers to address the current ramping crisis have gotten louder \u2014 four of the state’s health unions joined forces on Wednesday <\/a>to propose a five-point plan.<\/p>\n

That includes bringing 400 aged care beds online, guaranteed staffing and new emergency department diversion measures \u2014 an approach largely welcomed by Dr Fong.<\/p>\n

“You don’t very often see nurses and doctors’ unions actually joining hands together, so I think the government would be glad to see that people are actually putting their shoulder to the wheel to think about new ways of working together,” Mr Fong said.<\/p>\n

“But you can’t just conjure [aged care beds] up out of thin air\u2026 they take time and money to build and to find, and then obviously staff.”<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

Dr Neale Fong says the number of new beds needed could be in the thousands. (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

He says the number of beds needed is likely “in the hundreds, if not thousands” \u2014 along with in-home care packages announced by the federal government to get older people out of EDs.<\/p>\n

‘Old and depleted’<\/p>\n

Dr Fong’s audit is due in November, and will likely guide how the Cook government’s $50 million health infrastructure maintenance fund<\/a> is spent.<\/p>\n

Have something to share with the ABC’s WA newsroom?<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether it’s an image, video, story, or tip-off, you can send it to the ABC’s West Australian newsroom here.<\/p>\n

“[Some hospitals] are old and depleted in some spaces,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have found that there needs to be more effort and probably more resources, importantly, put into the repairs and maintenance of our aging hospital stock in particular.”<\/p>\n

But Dr Fong could not put a figure on the cost.<\/p>\n

“We won’t come up with a number, I don’t know what that number is,” he said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the government last week dumped an extra $500 million into a health infrastructure fund<\/a> to help cover cost blowouts and speed up hospital projects.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Dr Neale Fong’s audit is due next month. (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

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