Shadow Health Minister and Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup has slammed the state government for their decision to delay work on the Peel Health Campus' emergency department upgrades.
On Wednesday, the Mandurah Mail reported construction would be postponed for at least two weeks amid concerns of a potential coronavirus outbreak.
West Australian Health Minister Roger Cook said construction was "basically tools ready" but would be held back to ensure the capacity of the emergency department would not be reduced during the coronavirus "crisis".
"The Department [of Health] has asked the contractor to wait a fortnight while we review the situation and see what we need to put in place to protect the capacity of the emergency department," he said.
"That includes other ways we can use the hospital site to make sure that we still have that capacity. We need to ensure we have not only physical capacity but work force capacity as well.
"In the short-term, we've decided to postpone those works at least by a fortnight until we can make that decision."
However, Mr Kirkup has labelled the move "disappointing" and "simply not good enough".
"I remain very concerned about the impact coronavirus is going to have on our community," he said.
"We need a hospital that is prepared to deal with it and, the reality is, given the demand at Peel Health Campus, we don't have the resources to deal with it.
"I just don't want to see the government use coronavirus as an excuse to further delay vitally required, urgently needed upgrades to our hospital."
The upgrades will include a new fast-track area to improve patient triage, new holding bays, a reconfiguration of the existing triage area and a redesign of the waiting room, as well as the addition of seven short-stay beds to streamline patient flow.
They were originally scheduled to begin in February and be completed by August, 2020.
"It's really disappointing that we were already behind schedule and now we're going to be even more so," Mr Kirkup said.
"I don't think there is anyone in Mandurah who would be happy knowing that our hospital upgrades are going to be delayed again."
Mr Kirkup said he was particularly worried about the "disruptions" mentioned by the state government after it was promised construction would not impact emergency department operations.
"When the [Health] Minister announced the upgrades to Peel Health Campus, he said there would be little to no disruption anyway to our emergency department," he said.
"Now he's saying there has to be a delay because of disruption that might occur and they're worried about the impending coronavirus crisis.
"To me, the comments don't quite line up with the claims he made more than a year ago.
"If we have a situation where we were told the upgrades won't be disruptive and now they are going to be disruptive, what does that mean for when we actually do get the minor expansion we're getting? What will that look like?"
