‘Pressure point’: Opposition pans health review over lack of Peel detail

The 86-page document, which was released by Health Minister Roger Cook on Tuesday, only said that “Rockingham/Peel” was a “pressure point” that “required attention”.

The opposition’s Peel region spokesman Zak Kirkup said he feared the concerns raised by Mandurah residents about their health system would be sidestepped by the review’s recommendations.

“They’re largely ignoring the concerns we’ve had here and yet the government keeps telling us that the report is going to be the panacea, the cure to all the problems,” he said.

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense if it doesn’t actually mention the community at all.

“When you go through the report, it mentions ‘agility’ and ‘innovation’ more than it does Mandurah and Peel; I mean that’s just absurd.”

Read more:

Mr Kirkup called on the government to grant a longer lease over the campus to hospital operator Ramsay Health Care to encourage investment in its development.

“Every single person in Mandurah knows there's a problem with this hospital,” he said.

“Every person who comes here knows it needs to be bigger, from the car park right through to the clinical facilities.”

The state government had been pointing to the Sustainable Health Review to address concerns about Mandurah’s hospital.

Mr Cook said the interim report was a “critical step in the McGowan Labor Government’s plans to put the Health budget on a more sustainable footing”.

“The directions and recommendations [of the interim report] will help drive improvements in our health system,” he said.

Mr Cook said in February he was planning to visit Peel Health Campus with Mandurah MP David Templeman and is understood to be meeting privately with City of Mandurah councillors today about the hospital.

But Mr Kirkup said he was still waiting to hear back from Mr Cook after inviting him to visit the hospital on a Friday or Saturday night.

The final report of the Health Sustainability Review is due to be released in November.