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

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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 fire,

01:25another record month of ambulance ramping. It is an embarrassment for this government,

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

01:36and aged 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 missing

02:04pieces of WA's health puzzle? Well if you put it as a jigsaw you know there are edges and there are

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

02:17the last missing piece to kind of complete the 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 health

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

02:49this approach would work? I think that it said they needed more aged care beds and everyone's been saying

02:55that but 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've found that that all of the health

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

03:21you know are at a standard and they are at the standards but are they old and depleted in some

03:26spaces like we've heard about at Royal Perth and Charles Gardiner? Yes of course. So we have found that

03:31there needs to be more effort and probably more resources importantly put into the repairs and

03:37maintenance of our of our aging hospital stock in particular. If we need more capacity why can't we

03:44just build a new hospital right now? Well I've said this for many years now it's not just about

03:51hospitals we need to be investing yes there may well need to be more hospital beds but we need more

03:58support services in the in the earlier parts of people's illness trajectory so you know in terms

04:04of maintaining people with diabetes so that they don't get the complications of diabetes therefore

04:09don't need a hospital bed and some of that may be as simple as providing you know home care and nursing

04:15and support to those type of people. The mental health space is the other one where we need to

04:21employ more into the into the into the social work side of looking after people in the community and

04:27so that doesn't impact emergency department so it's not always about beds. You've started this

04:33week in your new role as chairman of the child and adolescent health service what's your priority?

04:39Well we have a fantastic children's and adolescent health service here in Western Australia it has been

04:44under pressure with a number of issues that the community would be aware of we've got staff that

04:49are very committed we've got great research that happens at the child and adolescent health service.

04:55You've been described as a health fixer have you been brought in to do just that?

05:01No I don't believe so I don't believe the child and adolescent health service is broken in any sense

05:07I think they've had troubles as we want to call it like that and I think it's a matter of you know

05:14it's a good service I love the analogy of going from good to great but in terms of the health

05:19service itself no I haven't come in to fix it I've come in to help work with all of the staff the

05:24doctors and families for that matter take it to in its next phase. Dr Neil Fong thank you so much for

05:31your time it's my pleasure thanks for having me

05:36you

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