The WA government will boost the health budget by $75 million in a bid to reduce pressure on hospital emergency departments and ambulance ramping.

April 26, 2023

The Western Australian government will spend an additional $75 million in a bid to reduce ambulance ramping and increase available hospital beds.

The funding, to be included in the 2023-24 state budget in May, is part of a broad ongoing push over the past 18 months to alleviate pressure on hospital emergency departments.

“There is no single solution that will improve access to emergency care, which is why we are looking at the patient journey as a whole … and making the reforms that matter,” Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said on Wednesday.

The reforms include establishing the first stage of WA Health operations centre in the coming months to improve monitoring and co-ordination of emergency care.

A virtual emergency department trial will also be bolstered and teams are being deployed to hospitals to tackle discharge delays and reduce the number of long-stay patients waiting for aged care or disability support.

A community-based hospital services trial for residential aged care is also being expanded and measures introduced to improve inter-hospital patient transport.

Key performance indicators will also be overhauled and hospital performance statistics will be made available to the public to boost accountability and transparency.

The new targets include admitting 80 per cent new patients presenting to emergency departments within six hours and discharging 80 per cent who do not need to be admitted to a ward within four hours.

A new public dashboard to report the targets, including ambulance ramping times, is also being developed, along with tools to monitor the entire patient journey through the hospital system.

“We are investing in major changes to avoid an ‘all roads lead to ED’ system while at the same time expanding our hospital bed capacity,” Ms Sanderson said.

The funding is in addition to almost $377.9 million committed since the 2021-22 budget to address pressures on WA’s emergency departments.