THOUSANDS WAITING TOO LONG FOR SURGERY UNDER WA LABOR

Elective surgery wait times remain at unacceptable levels in Western Australia, with 15 per cent of patients waiting longer for surgery than doctors recommend.

Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said today’s Cook Labor Government announcement regarding the Mount Hospital represented an ad hoc response to a much broader crisis across the health system.

Ms Mettam said elective surgery waitlists include patients waiting for life-critical procedures such as heart surgery, cancer surgery and other operations where delays can have serious consequences for patient health and place even greater pressure on the wider hospital system.

“As of April 2026, 4,565 West Australians were waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery, while the total elective surgery waitlist had grown to 29,879 cases - up from around 19,000 in 2017,” she said.

“While we welcome any measure that has the potential to ease pressure on the health system, there needs to be a coordinated approach to reducing the elective surgery waitlist across the entire health system.”

Ms Mettam said serious questions remained around transparency, cost, accountability and whether the arrangement would deliver meaningful outcomes for patients.

“West Australians have no idea how much taxpayers will be paying under this arrangement or what they will receive in return,” she said.

“The Government has announced financial assistance for Bethesda and flagged the use of Mount Hospital services for public patients, yet has provided almost no detail about the size of the taxpayer contribution, how the arrangement will operate, or what safeguards are in place to ensure value for money.

“There has also been no information released on how many additional surgeries will actually be delivered, how many public patients will be treated, how many beds will be made available to the public system, or what impact this deal is expected to have on reducing pressure across WA hospitals.”

Ms Mettam said the Liberal Party took a comprehensive elective surgery guarantee policy to the last election because the pressures facing the health system required a coordinated, system-wide response.

“Our plan focused on ensuring patients received surgery within clinically recommended timeframes, expanding surgical capacity, increasing partnerships with the private sector and delivering practical measures to improve patient flow across the health system,” she said.

“West Australians deserve transparency and accountability when taxpayer money is being committed - not vague announcements and another press release without detail.”