Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also just add, along with the member for Boothby, that we are very much looking forward to the event this evening.

Not long ago I stood in this place and spoke about the Joondalup Health Campus, which for the people of Perth's northern suburbs is our hospital; it's the hospital that services the majority of the northern suburbs. I note that the member for Moore is here, and it services many people in his electorate too. At that time, I spoke about how almost half of the local patients in the northern suburbs have to travel elsewhere, often as far away as some of the southern suburbs, to get medical attention, because the Joondalup Health Campus just doesn't have the resources that it needs to cope with the growing demand of Perth's growing northern suburbs. I know very well that the health professionals there are doing the best that they can to care for the community and provide the service for the community, and indeed they continue to do a fantastic job. But no doubt the hospital is under pressure.

I'll repeat very quickly what I said back at the time when I spoke about the Joondalup hospital. Because the population in the northern suburbs is expected to grow by almost a third from 2013 to 2026, it's estimated that in just four years the hospital demand will outstrip capacity to deliver services for the northern suburbs. Right now, even before that has happened, the hospital has around the same number of emergency department presentations as the Fiona Stanley Hospital, but it only has 56 emergency beds compared to 70 at the Fiona Stanley Hospital. It can only treat 58 per cent of local patients, which means almost half the people in the northern suburbs have to go elsewhere to get treatment at a local hospital. Hospital admissions have increased by 28 per cent, and operations have increased by 60 per cent.

Just two weeks ago I was absolutely delighted to stand with Bill Shorten, with Mark McGowan, the Premier of WA, and with the member for Ballarat, the shadow health minister, to announce that Labor will provide funding of $154 million for a state-of-the-art 75-bed mental health unit at the Joondalup Health Campus. The federal funding matches the McGowan Labor government's funding to expand the emergency department, add 90 new beds and eight new operating theatres, open an urgent care clinic and build a medihotel. This is fantastic news for the people of the northern suburbs, and I'm proud of the people of Cowan who stood up and fought for their hospital—those who made calls and doorknocked among their neighbours to talk about this very important campaign. I'm very proud that the announcement has come from Bill Shorten and from Labor. I'm proud to be a member of Labor.

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