Royal Children’s Hospital
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:21): (1498) My question is again to the Minister for Health. Minister, a leaked memo from the Royal Children’s Hospital says that they applied for funding. Is the minister saying that this is incorrect – that they never applied for such funding?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:22): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. As I have already indicated very clearly, this is an important project, and the way in which we commission our important infrastructure projects – and we have done many, so we are well versed at how this occurs with health services – is that the health department works very closely with the health service concerned and VIDA. Once the construction is completed, we have already had lead time in order to discuss in detail what the operationalisation of the project looks like in terms of workforce needs and standing up and operationalising those additional points of care. That is the process that is being undertaken right now. It is no different to any other project that our government has delivered – $15.5 billion worth of investment across the health portfolios, something that we are incredibly proud to continue.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:23): An interesting answer, yet again. Also from the leaked memo, Minister:
But we can be honest with each other and accept that despite our best efforts, the standard of care we would like to deliver and believe our patients deserve was being compromised.
Minister, why does independent benchmarking show the Royal Children’s Hospital having the lowest nursing and medical staffing levels of any Australian children’s hospital ED?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:23): I thank Ms Crozier for her supplementary question. What she fails to understand is that we are absolutely mindful of the additional demands that are on our hospital services right across the state right now, and the Royal Children’s Hospital is no different. That is why we are investing in additional capacity. We know that the emergency department is experiencing a significant uptick in demand. It is one of the reasons why we have been proud to support the investment to build out and supply additional capacity in the emergency department. Our government has a strong track record of not just investing in the capital projects that we need for a growing state but also backing in the workforce. We have put on 17,000 additional nurses since coming to government – 40,000 additional healthcare workers across the system. We are proud of that, and we will continue that work.