PREMIER’S $1.5B PLAN TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON PUBLIC HOSPITALS

Media Release
13 April 2026

Libby Mettam MLA
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Shadow Minister for Health


Today’s pre-budget announcement on health expenditure from the Premier amounts to a band aid on a gaping wound and will leave our public hospitals with less beds per head of population than it currently has, according to Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam.
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Ms Mettam said that while $1.5 billion was a welcome addition to the health spend, there was no clarity about where most of that money would be spent or where the planned 900 additional beds would be located.
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“There is also no clarity around the 900 beds – does that number include repurposed beds, relocated beds and beds shuffled from the private system to the public system?” she said.
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“Is the government including new beds at the new Women and Babies Hospital in that 900 figure, because those beds already exist in Subiaco, likewise with new beds at Peel Health campus?
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“In addition to those 900 beds we need another 120 to just maintain our current woeful second worst in the nation beds per capita standing and an additional 500 just to climb to the national average.
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“What the Premier announced today isn’t a plan to fix the system, it’s a plan to put our public health system and health workers under even greater pressure.”

Ms Mettam said Labor had failed to deliver even one hospital in 10 years.
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Ms Mettam said the announcement also made it clear why the Cook Government had consistently refused to answer questions from the Opposition about maintenance budgets, bed numbers and cost overruns,” she said.
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“The Government and its five health ministers want us to think all budget blowouts will be attributable to the Middle East conflict; I think it’s convenient timing for a government that has consistently undercooked the cost of providing adequate health infrastructure.”
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Ms Mettam also questioned the need for a $36.2 million spend to simply coordinate the opening of the beds.
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“Given taxpayers are already paying for a dedicated Minister for Health Infrastructure, why is it an additional $40,000 per bed has been allocated to simply coordinate the timing of the openings,” she said.
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“I doubt there will be any clarity on how much of that budget will be spent on government spin.”

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