Over the past few weeks, as part of the Civics and Citizenship unit in HASS, I have been planning and writing a letter to my local Member of Parliament. The letter has to be concerning an issue that we are passionate about, whether it be something as small as adding more parks into our suburb or something as big as gender equality. The topic I picked was the insufficient healthcare system in Western Australia. I picked this topic because I have noticed that over the past couple of years, WA hospitals have been struggling to cope with large numbers of patients because of a lack of staff and capacity. I am very passionate about this issue because my mum is a health worker at Armadale hospital. Although I am too young to vote, writing this letter has given me the chance to actively participate in Australian Democracy and fulfil my role as a citizen of Australia.
You can read my letter below:
22 May 2022
Matt Keogh MP
PO Box 465
Kelmscott, WA, 6991
Dear Mr Keogh,
My name is Amber Lynch, and I am a student at All Saints’ College. I am writing to you today to express my concerns about Western Australia’s insufficient healthcare system.
I have noticed that ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, hospitals and their emergency services have been struggling to deal with the influx of patients as a result of insufficient resources, a small capacity and a lack of staff.
Although Western Australia is the richest state in the country, we have the lowest number of Intensive Care Unit beds per capita, with only 6 beds per 100,000 people. We are falling well behind the national average of 8.5 beds per 100,000 people. The state’s investments should be going towards primary healthcare, as has been promised in the past but not delivered.
A bigger problem that has surfaced because of this lack of beds is ambulance ramping. As you are aware, people are being forced to wait in the back of an ambulance to receive treatment, even though they are sick enough to have called for help in the first place.
Just to prove how substandard the efficiency of our emergency services is, two people have died whilst waiting for an ambulance just this week. A report regarding 80-year-old Georgina Wild’s death last Sunday stated that she died from a suspected heart-attack after waiting two and a half hours for an ambulance. In addition to this, a Perth man died of a heart-attack on that same morning whilst also waiting for help to arrive. He was classified as a priority three at first, meaning that paramedics had 1 hour to arrive. But 2 hours later, they still had not shown up. The man was upgraded to a priority 1 after his chest pains became severe, but he died minutes later. These deaths could have easily been avoided if the Western Australian government decided to take action earlier and prepare hospitals properly before the borders reopened.
Moreover, paramedics have spent more than 52,000 hours in total in 2021 waiting to admit patients, according to figures published by St John WA. This is the equivalent of 6 years, which is far too long.
Health staff shortages have now reached a critical level. A recent independent report in regards to the death of 7-year-old Aishwarya Aswath in the emergency department last year has stated that staffing and rostering issues could be one of the underlying causes. In fact, in 2018, 90% of Western Australian patients had to wait nearly 2 hours to be seen by a doctor in the Emergency Department. This average time is 20 minutes more than the national comparison, and it will be even higher as I am writing to you today. In my own experience, when I had a wrist injury and had to go to the hospital, I waited more than 4 hours to see a doctor. On that same night, my mother was off duty, yet she still had to help 2 deteriorating patients seek urgent medical care. She often gets called into work on her days off because of a significant staffing shortage and is overwhelmed by the number of patients she is required to see. Like my mum, many health workers “burn out” for this reason.
I am pleased to see that the Western Australian government has recognised this current issue and raised the annual health budget by 30.9 percent this year. However, hospitals are still facing staff recruitment challenges. Most of the front-line health workers are underpaid, earning an annual average income of as low as $53,062. This is believed to be one of the reasons why the health system cannot retain well-trained professionals.
I ask that you pass this letter on to the Western Australian Health Minister and suggest to them that we raise the health budget, so we can invest more into hospital capacity and raise the healthcare worker salary to attract more hospital staff. I also ask that you suggest to that we provide current healthcare workers more training and up-skilling opportunities to cope with the current situation. The Western Australian government needs to act now to avoid a public health crisis.
Thank you for your time, and I hope you understand my concerns and consider my suggestions.
Yours sincerely,
Amber Lynch