Why 'record' investment in WA's health system fails to keep up with growing problems

ABC NEWS (Australia)

West Australians are continually told they have a "world-class" health system, growing ever better thanks to "record" government investment. But for many it doesn't feel like a world-class system, with ramping records being broken again this year and more than 100 elective surgeries being cancelled last week to make room for emergency patients.

Transcript

00:00All the time we're being told about record investment in WA's health system.

00:07So why doesn't it seem to be making a difference?

00:10Let's start with some of the raw numbers.

00:12How much state money goes to WA Health each year?

00:16This chart shows government spending over the last 25 years a 313 per cent rise.

00:23Sounds pretty big right?

00:24It is, but it doesn't account for WA's growing population.

00:28Factored that in and the spending per West Australian shows a 158 per cent rise.

00:34But that's still not the full picture because as we've all experienced in the last few years,

00:39inflation can have a real bite.

00:43Work that in as you can see with this red line and you end up with a 24 per cent rise, about

00:47a per cent a year.

00:49Still big, but not quite as big.

00:51And while in some ways advancing technology has made health care cheaper, it's also created

00:56new treatments, including for illnesses which might not have been treatable before, which

01:01all comes at a cost.

01:02The other big issue is this chart, which shows the growing number of West Australians aged over 65,

01:08rising from 11 to 16 per cent over the last quarter of a century.

01:13Aged care is struggling to meet that demand and often when they're unwell, these older West Australians

01:19are ending up in hospital.

01:21The end result is capacity in the health care system and in hospitals in particular being

01:26eroded over time.

01:28It means when there are spikes in demand, like there was last week, reducing elective surgery

01:32is one of the few ways the system can cope.

01:35The Premier, Health Minister and Aged Care Minister are heading to Canberra this week to plead

01:40their case for more support from the Feds.

01:43On any measure, we are not getting our share and we want the Federal Government to understand

01:48that that's putting pressure on seniors, their families and our hospital system.

01:53There are no quick fixes for this problem, but it's clear both increased spending and major

01:59changes to the delivery of health care will be needed both now and in the years ahead.

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