Perth and Western Australian Hospital Budget Cuts
Saturday May 16, 2009
Western Australian hospital projects are suffering with a cut or delay of a total $400million, the recent Budget papers revealed.
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital diagnostic and treatment centre as well as the redevelopment of the Osborne Park Hospital, both located in Perth, have been cancelled, said Opposition Health spokesman, Roger Cook.
Projects that have been planned at Esperance Hospital, Busselton Hospital, Bentley Hospital, Harvey Hospital, WA's cancer centre and Stage one of Graylands Hospital, have all been postponed.
Federal funding announced that the Midland Health Campus project will go ahead, but it won't be finished by the original 2014 deadline when the Barnett Government said it would.
Mr Cook said that next year's Budget is set to been even more dire as the Barnett Government does not know how much it would cost to maintain Royal Perth Hospital as a tertiary hospital.
Western Australian Health Minister Kim Hames said that, even in the harsh economic times, the Liberal-National Government acted to increase health care spending by 5.9 per cent, amounting to $5.1billion, in 2009-10.
Find out what else is happening in Perth.
