More than $9 billion will be spent across health in Western Australia over the next four years.
Treasurer Rita Safiotti described the spend as the biggest investment in health in the state’s history as she handed down the State Budget for 2026/2027 on 7 May.
“This Budget delivers a record $9.1 billion for more beds, more staff and more hospital capacity, while backing the programs that help people access care sooner and closer to home,” she said.
The budget includes $6.5 billion to deliver hospital services and $5.5 billion for health infrastructure through to mid 2030.
More than $80 million is being invested towards strengthening HR systems and ensuring reliable payroll services, as well as $75.8 million to support increased demand for ICT, payroll, recruitment and supply services for frontline health service delivery.
This announcement is timely considering a recent survey of junior doctors found 65% had reported experiencing pay errors.
Among the spending in the coming year is $1.5 billion for health infrastructure, of which $500 million will be added to the Building Hospitals Fund to bring it up to $2 billion.
Detail within the Budget papers revealed the cost of buying, commissioning and commencing public services through the previously privately owned St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital would set the government back $225 million.
RELATED: State government to buy St John of God Mt Lawley to ease pressure on public hospitals
The purchase is expected to bring 118 beds into the public hospital system as of September.
AMA (WA) President Dr Kyle Hoath said the government’s financial promises were reassuring.
“It’s hard not to be excited to see the big headline number of $9.1 billion invested into health. We needed this kind of investment in our health system,” he said.
“We’ve seen what happened last winter. We know what’s coming in a few months’ time as the months get colder.
“We’ve been languishing for a while in a state where we need more hospital beds, we need more staff to deliver care to the community,” Dr Hoath said.
“To see this level of investment from the government is very reassuring, and we thank the investment across a number of key areas including hospital infrastructure, including resource delivery and staffing and mental health in particular.”
After the state’s hospitals endured one of the worst winters last year, with record flu cases and emergency department pressure building to a point elective surgeries were postponed, the WA Health has put in place measures to bolster hospitals as part of a winter strategy – including more hospital beds, a focus on keeping people out of emergency departments and free vaccinations.
RELATED: More hospital beds and free jabs as government prepares for winter
However, before winter is in full swing, new figures show ambulances were ramped outside WA hospitals for 4,109 hours in April, up from 3,843 hours in April 2025.
Last year, hours started to increase significantly after April, culminating in three months of record winter ramping from starting in July.
The government does not appear to have set aside funding to establish an office of the Chief General Practitioner to embed specialist GPs in health system planning and coordination as the RACGP (WA) had previously called for.
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