ABC takes a look at WA's health puzzle, and some of the challenges that need to be overcome

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Health continues to be a snowballing problem in WA, with the state marking its highest ambulance ramping figures this week. The government says its doing what it can to fix a system under strain yet some say there are still missing pieces. State Political Reporter Courtney Withers sits down with former Department of Health Director-General, Dr Neale Fong. But first, ABC takes a look at WA's health puzzle, and some of the challenges that need to be overcome.

Transcript

00:00Let's think of WA's health system as a puzzle. There are multiple pieces that make up the

00:13whole picture, each part fitting together and playing a role. There are key pieces like adequate

00:20staffing, maintaining infrastructure and upgrading existing hospitals. And there are trickier ones

00:28like catering for WA's ageing population. Every day there are hundreds of hospital beds filled with

00:36people waiting for aged and home care places. The government is confident the health puzzle

00:42is largely put together. It's got a women's and babies hospital in Murdoch on the way.

00:48It's continuing to push the federal government for more home care packages to get older West

00:53Australians out of EDs and it's freed up $500 million for a health infrastructure fund to dip

00:59in and out of. But some on the front lines say there are still missing pieces. ED doctors want

01:07another hospital in seven years but the government won't put a timeline on it. I can't say that we're

01:13going to do this in this specific period of time but as you know the health department is always

01:18looking at these planning and forward projections of demand. Instead it's putting out a short-term

01:24fire, another record month of ambulance ramping. It is an embarrassment for this government. They

01:30should be ashamed and they should be humiliated. The government blames a severe flu season and

01:36aged care shortage but the health puzzle is only going to get more challenging as new issues arise.

01:43Few people understand the system like former WA Health Director General and Child and Adolescent

01:49Health Service Chairman Dr Neil Fong. He brings more than 35 years experience in both the public

01:56and private sectors. Dr Neil Fong, welcome to Stateline. Pleasure to be here. What are the

02:03missing pieces of WA's health puzzle? Well if you put it as a jigsaw you know there are edges and there

02:10are centrepieces and there's always that last missing piece. I think we're a fair way off from

02:17finding the last missing piece to kind of complete the picture. WA recorded its third back-to-back

02:24month of record ambulance ramping this week. Why is it continuing to get worse? Well I think the needs

02:31of our population continue to grow. Our population itself continues to grow. More people and an older

02:38population as many people have said over and over means that there'll be more demands in our healthcare

02:43system. Health unions have put forward a five-point plan to address ramping. Do you think this approach

02:50would work? I think that it said they needed more aged care beds and everyone's been saying that

02:55but you can't just conjure them up you know out of the out of thin air. They take time and money to

03:02build and to find and then obviously staff. You're leading a snap review into WA's hospital

03:08infrastructure. What have you found so far? Well I found that that all of the health

03:14service are trying their very hardest to ensure that the facilities that people use you know are

03:21at a standard and they are at the standards but are they old and depleted in some spaces like we've

03:27heard about at Royal Perth and Charles Gardiner? Yes of course. So we have found that there needs to be

03:33more effort and probably more resources importantly put into the repairs and maintenance of our of our

03:39ageing hospital stock in particular. If we need more capacity why can't we just build a new hospital

03:46right now? Well I've said this for many years now it's not just about hospitals. We need to be investing

03:53yes there may well need to be more hospital beds but we need more support services in the in the earlier

04:00parts of people's illness trajectory. So you know in terms of maintaining people with diabetes so that

04:07they don't get the complications of diabetes therefore don't need a hospital bed and some of that may be

04:12as simple as providing you know home care and nursing and support to those type of people. The mental

04:18health space is the other one where we need to employ more into the into the into the social work side of

04:24looking after people in the community and so that doesn't impact emergency department so it's not

04:30always about beds. You've started this week in your new role as chairman of the child and adolescent

04:36health service what's your priority? Well we have a fantastic children's and adolescent health service

04:43here in West Australia it has been under pressure with a number of issues that the community would be

04:48aware of. We've got staff that are very committed, we've got great research that happens at the

04:54child and adolescent health service. You've been described as a health fixer have you been brought

04:59in to do just that? No I don't believe so I don't believe the child and adolescent health service is

05:04broken in in any sense. I think they've had troubles as we want to call it like that and I think it's a

05:12matter of you know it's a it's a good service I love the analogy of going from good to great but in

05:18terms of the health service itself no I haven't come in to fix it I've come in to help work with all of

05:24the staff the doctors and families for that matter take it to you know its next phase. Dr Neil Fong thank

05:30you so much for your time. It's my pleasure thanks for having me.

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