The announcement of 120 extra public hospital beds across parts of Perth this winter may be welcome news – but it may not be enough to prevent elective surgeries being rescheduled again.
AMA (WA) President Dr Kyle Hoath said the state government needed to be transparent about bed capacity, staffing and elective surgery cancellations so clinicians and the public could have confidence that these announcements did not amount to creative accounting.
“If winter plans just shift the pressure into cancelled surgery, patients still pay the price,” he said.
Ahead of the state budget due next week the government announced a total of 120 beds across Joondalup Health Campus and St John of God Midland would soon come online.
Sixty beds at Joondalup would be commissioned at the end of July and another 60 at the end of August in Midland. The beds are in addition to the 200 being made available to public patients this year through the 2026 Winter Strategy, put in place to help the health system cope with increased demand over the upcoming months.
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Health Minister Meredith Hammat described it as a “significant boost to hospital capacity” in the eastern and northern corridors.
Dr Hoath said it was encouraging to see the government acknowledge the need for more capacity, but on their own additional beds would not address underlying capacity gaps.
“The deficit in beds continues to drive bed block, ED crowding and ambulance ramping, especially over winter,” Dr Hoath said.
“With a tranche of beds not expected until late August, they are unlikely to materially ease pressures this winter, underscoring the need to bring capacity online as quickly as possible and plan beyond the immediate season.”
He said beds were only meaningful if they were properly staffed and supported by doctors, nurses, ambulance services, administrative staff and the wider hospital workforce.
“We are already seeing rising acuity and demand in emergency departments, alongside increasing workforce strain and burnout risk, and that is not just unacceptable for our members but also the community they serve and care for,” Dr Hoath said.
He said data around cancellations of elective surgery also needed to be made public.
“Elective surgery must be protected,” Dr Hoath said.
Last year pressure on the public system during winter saw a number of category two and three elective surgeries cancelled across multiple hospitals.
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A WA Health spokesperson said a clinically-led escalation framework to manage periods of increased demand across hospitals and health services had been incorporated in the 2026 Winter Strategy.
“As part of this framework, and only when necessary, some non urgent elective surgeries may be temporarily rescheduled to ensure hospital beds, staff and resources are prioritised for patients requiring urgent and emergency care.”
The department did not provide Medical Forum with total bed numbers for the Joondalup Health Campus and St John of God Midland Hospital, where the additional beds are to open.
Dr David Mountain, spokesperson for the AMA (WA) on emergency medicine said it should be easy for the department to access information about the number of beds available at each public hospital on a daily basis.
“Every day, there will be some beds closed but that doesn’t take away from what your base is, the base should be what you’ve got staffing for, and is currently available to be opened,” he said.
“The fact that they don’t have that available shows either how chaotic the system is or perhaps how much they like having a way of making it grey and difficult for anybody to know what the actual base stock is, so they can claim numbers without being held properly to task about them.”
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