8/10/01
The State Government has committed $500,000 to ensure Busselton residents - and visitors to the region - have access to emergency services 24 hours a day.
Health Minister Bob Kucera said the funds would allow for the development of enhanced emergency services at Busselton District Hospital.
For the past three years, significant ongoing problems have affected the reliability of the Busselton District Hospital's accident and emergency service.
"It has been difficult to guarantee a reliable service because it was dependent on the availability of local GPs, who had competing obligations," Mr Kucera said.
"Last November, the Vasse Leeuwin Health Service was unable to guarantee sufficient GPs to provide cover for the accident and emergency department and the hospital could no longer guarantee medical cover for all people attending the accident and emergency department."
A contract medical officer service was then introduced to staff the hospital's emergency department on a 24-hour basis while a long term solution was found.
Mr Kucera said the Vasse Leeuwin and Bunbury Health Services had now developed a joint service.
Bunbury Health Service has taken over the responsibility for providing emergency department doctors to the Busselton District Hospital.
"This means we now have a co-ordinated emergency department service across the Bunbury and Vasse Leeuwin Health Services," Mr Kucera said.
"There is a big difference between the availability of someone employed full-time and someone who is busy in their practice while on-call to the hospital.
"The service now has much greater flexibility and vastly improved access to sufficiently qualified staff."
Mr Kucera said a director of emergency services based in Bunbury supervised the new co-ordinated service.
"There will be significant benefits from the larger pool of doctors involved in emergency services and from the development of common treatment protocols, equipment and procedures," he said.
"The region's capacity to deal with medical emergencies will be increased and there will be enhanced opportunities for the education and training of health professionals."
The co-ordinated service is part of the South-West health services' 1998-2006 Strategic Plan.
Mr Kucera said the current focus of the plan was to establish new and expanded services in the South-West.
The number of public patients able to access clinical services provided by the St John of God Health care in Bunbury - including renal dialysis, chemotherapy and inpatient and community based palliative care services - would also increase under the plan.
"The renal dialysis facility will double its capacity to treat patients with end-stage kidney failure," the Minister said.
"This new service will provide easier local access to care."
Media Contact: Jean Perkins (08) 9213 7000
