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

Every parent knows this story: that pit in your stomach as you watch your child struggle to breathe and with a soaring temperature that just won't go down. The midnight run to the hospital emergency department with your child in your arms, the fear and panic as you wait in the emergency department, and fighting off sleep as you sit by your child's bed into the early hours of the morning. I've been there too, because health services for families, young people and the elderly are one of the perpetual issues affecting all Australians.

Access to appropriate and timely health care is the right of every Australian. When I delivered my first speech in this chamber, over a year ago now, I spoke about the many challenges facing those in our outer suburbs. I spoke about economic inequalities and the fact that growing up in the outer suburbs means that you start life on an uneven playing field. I vowed to dedicate my parliamentary career to delivering the benefits of growth to the outer suburbs of Cowan—better services, better infrastructure, better schools and better access to health services.

For the people in Perth's northern suburbs, the Joondalup Health Campus is our hospital. But almost half of our local patients have to travel elsewhere, often as far as some of the southern suburbs, to get medical attention because Joondalup Health Campus doesn't have the resources it needs to cope with growing demand. I know the health professionals there are doing everything they can with the limited resources they have, and they do a fantastic job, but Joondalup Health Campus is under pressure. It needs $312 million for more emergency department beds, for new operating theatres, for a dedicated mental health unit and for a stroke unit.

The McGowan Labor government is pulling its weight, having committed $167 million to ensure that people in the northern suburbs are not left behind when it comes to health care, but the Turnbull government is ignoring the needs of our northern suburbs and hasn't committed any federal funding. That's why I'm taking this fight here to Canberra. Perth's northern suburbs are growing rapidly: it's estimated that in just four years hospital demand will outstrip capacity to deliver services in the suburbs.

But this isn't an issue for tomorrow. Right now, Joondalup has around the same number of emergency department presentations as Fiona Stanley Hospital but has just 56 emergency department beds compared to 70 at Fiona Stanley. Right now the hospital can only treat 58 per cent of local patients, which means that almost half of the patients in the northern suburbs can't get treatment at their local hospital. Hospital admissions have increased by 28 per cent in the past five years. Operations have increased by 60 per cent. Emergency presentations average 269 patients per day, an increase of 10 per cent. ED waiting times are significantly impacted: for category 3 presentations, only around 25 per cent are seen within the target of 30 minutes; for category 4 presentations, only 49 per cent are seen within 60 minutes. A better resourced emergency department will mean that the hospital can meet its target of 75 per cent for category 3 and 70 per cent for category 4.

In WA, only 44 per cent of stroke patients are treated in a stroke unit. In the northern suburbs, there are more than 3,000 people living with stroke who do not have access to a local stroke unit. Higher quality in hospital support for stroke patients is paramount to better outcomes for stroke survivors and delivers significant economic savings.

The privilege of the position we hold in this place is being able to take up causes like this and bring them here to Canberra to deliver better outcomes for our communities. I'm standing up for Cowan and I'm standing up for the needs of Australians in our outer suburbs to access timely and quality health services, and I ask: will this government do the same? Will the Prime Minister stand up for those in the outer suburbs of Perth, for the people of Cowan and for the people of every other outer suburb across this country and show them that this government too cares about their health services?