“We deserve better”.
That was the message which Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup was spreading at Tuesday night’s Peel Health Rally, in the bid to bring attention to the region’s “health crisis”.
It was a statement which was met with high emotion by the hundreds who turned out to the Eastlake Church carpark for the rally.
With the Peel Health Campus in the background, the Dawesville MP, Canning MP Andrew Hastie and shadow health minister Sean L’Estrange came together and stressed the lack of hospital funding in the region.
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“I've had plenty of people come to my office with their concerns,” Mr Kirkup said.
“One concern, in particular, was about a pacemaker.
“This community which I represent ... is one of the oldest per capita in Western Australia.
“There is not a single person, a single technician at Peel Health Campus who can work on a pacemaker.
“There is not a full-time renal dialysis unit here.
“You have to go to Fiona Stanley to get seen to on a full-time basis.”
Among the concerns for the campus were the needs for an expanded emergency department, a larger carpark, a long-term health plan and a separate pediatric ED waiting room.
"We have been grievously overlooked for funding,” Mr Hastie said.
“You are all aware of the announcement last week that the federal government gave $190 million to the state allocated towards health care, and not a cent was allocated by the state government to Peel Health Campus.
“The bottom line is the federal government gave that money to the state government and they allocated it according to their priorities and they overlooked Peel entirely.”
Mr L’Estrange praised the work hospital staff were doing, saying they were “tremendous professionals”.
“This rally is actually about making sure that all of those fantastic people who work really hard to help us when we are down are supported and resourced appropriately,” he said.
"But what we're seeing is a trend, which is a worrying trend.
“Already we've got the emergency department where you're supposed to have a 90 percent targeted achieved of wait times of less than four hours for treatment.
“What we have a people at the moment is around 77 percent.
“What's even more worrying is that over recent years it's dropped by 14 percent.”
It is hoped there will be funding for the Peel Health Campus in the state government’s budget, which will be released next week.
