WA State election 2025: Labor pledges $97m for Royal Perth Hospital emergency department redevelopment

Premier Roger Cook has announced a $97 million redevelopment of the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department, as health takes centre stage in the State election battle. Mr Cook is promising that if Labor is re-elected in March, his government will “modernise the emergency department, reduce ambulance ramping and slash wait times” at RPH, scheduled for next year. The commitment is on top of $2.1 billion worth of Labor election promises so far this campaign. The RPH redevelopment would include more than 50 new treatment bays, a new CT scanner space, eight extra ambulance triage bays, more triage rooms and a specialised mental health early treatment zone. In addition, $7m would be invested in a master plan for broader works for the inner city hospital “in years to come”. This would include town planning, urban design, site surveys and time and cost planning works to reduce disruption and ensure the hospital can meet the needs of the community. “Our $104 million investment will deliver an innovative new emergency department and a master plan to transform this key tertiary hospital for the next generation,” Mr Cook said. “The state-of-the-art ED will slash waiting times, streamline services and reduce ambulance ramping, meaning better services, better conditions for staff and better patient outcomes.” The Cook Government late last year also announced the $49.5 million redevelopment of Sir Charles Gairdner’s ED would begin this year — four years after it was first mooted. Work on the project, which will include a new clinical toxicology unit, is expected to start in coming months. In December, the Government also signed a letter of intent to move to the next stage of negotiations with joint venture partners Roberts Co and Webuild for the new $1.8 billion women and babies hospital project at Murdoch. In what has also become another state election issue, Liberal leader Libby Mettam is promising to tear up those contracts and instead build the new hospital at the QEII site in Nedlands. Mr Cook and the two-term Labor Government was this week forced to defend its eight-year-record on health, as damning new figures emerged on ED wait times. The Productivity Commission’s latest report found just 48 per cent of patients attending WA ED’s were seen on time in 2023-24, compared with the national average of 67 per cent. Across ED triage categories, WA had the country’s worst wait times when it came to urgent category cases, with only 32 per cent of patients seen on time. The semi-urgent rate was 49 per cent, non-urgent 82 per cent, emergency 69 per cent and resuscitation 99 per cent. But Mr Cook is adamant his government has delivered on health. “My Government has runs on the board when it comes to delivering a world-class health system for Western Australia, with record investment in health and mental health, hundreds of extra beds and more hospital funding per person than any other State,” he said on Saturday. “This announcement will build on this record and further strengthen WA’s hospital system.”