RPH beds open in promised 117-bed expansion in hospitals

  • Health Minister today opened the first 26 of Royal Perth Hospital’s new beds
  • This follows 24 beds opening at Fremantle Hospital last week to improve patient flow
  • These beds represent 117 new beds to be opened across WA hospitals by July 
  • Health Minister Roger Cook today opened the first 26 of the new 36 beds at Royal Perth Hospital, part of 117 beds to be opened across Western Australia in the coming months.

    These new beds are part of 500 additional hospital beds being added to the health system, including 300 new inpatient beds of which 100 are mental health beds.

    This includes 95 new emergency department beds, one of the biggest expansions of ED capacity in the State’s history.

    These Royal Perth Hospital beds are both medical (22) and surgical beds (14) and will make a significant contribution to patients requiring hospital care.

    Western Australians who are most in need of urgent emergency care and hospital admission can be assessed, managed and observed in a ward environment.

    These new Royal Perth Hospital beds will create at least 60 new jobs for nurses.

    The opening of these new beds will also take the pressure off the busy Royal Perth Hospital emergency department.

    Meanwhile, 24 new beds have just opened at Fremantle Hospital. Of these beds, 14 are geriatric, six are general medicine and four are general surgical beds.

    These beds will help relieve pressure on Fiona Stanley Hospital and consolidates Fremantle Hospital as a leading provider of same day surgery, aged care and mental health services.

    Both the Royal Perth Hospital and Fremantle Hospital beds are expected to have a positive impact on patient flow and, in turn, ED waiting times across the system.

    Osborne Park Hospital opened 10 new beds in March 2021 and plans to open an additional 16 beds over coming weeks, including dedicated rehabilitation and stroke beds.

    The remaining beds will be opened by July this year.

    Last month, the McGowan Government announced the recruitment of 600 newly qualified nurses over two years to address the demand on WA’s hospital system.

    As stated by Health Minister Roger Cook:

    “We continue to build extra capacity in our hospital system to put patients first.

    “My meetings with the State Health Ministers last week showed that pressure on hospital emergency departments is not just a WA issue, it is a shared national problem.

    “All States are dealing with unprecedented demand on their health systems and we are investing immediately in new beds to deal with this demand.

    “These additional beds will help ensure patients continue to be triaged efficiently and those that most require care can be admitted to our hospitals in the safest, most timely manner.

    “These new beds will help ease the pressure on our emergency departments and support the ongoing delivery of high-quality care for patients across the Perth metropolitan area who have presented at emergency departments and who need hospital admission.”

    /Public Release. View in full here.