Patients who are medically cleared for discharge but remain in hospital place significant strain on the healthcare system.

These unnecessary extended stays block essential hospital beds, creating bottlenecks that delay care in emergency departments and postpone elective surgeries.

Western Australia has some of the longest hospital stays in the country due to a severe shortage of transitional care options.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the average length of stay in a public hospital in WA is just 2.8 days.

However, patients awaiting NDIS and aged care services often remain in hospital for weeks or even months, significantly impacting capacity.

A 2022 Auditor General’s report found that these patients accounted for over 40,000 bed days after they were medically ready for discharge.

Additionally, the report highlighted that relocating 486 long-stay patients to appropriate care settings would have freed up 14,000 hospital bed days, underscoring a critical failure in the system.

Hospitals are not designed for long-term stays.

When patients cannot transition to suitable care, they face higher risks of infection, reduced mobility, and social isolation, all of which hinder their recovery.

The WA Liberals are committed to ensuring patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Western Australia’s health system is in crisis, and the WA Labor has failed to act.

Decisive action is needed to improve healthcare outcomes and restore the proper function of our hospitals.

Only a WA Liberal Government will ensure this occurs.

The WA Liberals believe in a health system where Western Australians can be confident they will receive the treatment and care they need, when and where they need it.

Across WA, patients are waiting – for care, for an ambulance, for a specialist, for a bed, and, mostly, for targeted investment in our hospital system.

Increasing capacity across much-needed areas of our health system will enable ambulances to offload patients more quickly, improving emergency response times, and reducing ramping delays.

A WA Liberal Government will invest $275 million over four years to deliver 500 additional transitional care beds across Western Australia.

This commitment will help reduce pressure on hospitals, improve patient outcomes, and ease ambulance ramping by ensuring patients who no longer require acute care can transition to appropriate settings.

The additional transitional care beds will cater to all patients requiring transitional care, including post-surgical patients, older Australians awaiting aged care placement, individuals recovering from serious illnesses or injuries, and those with complex care needs transitioning to community-based services.

By freeing up hospital beds, this initiative will improve emergency department capacity, elective surgery scheduling, and inpatient ward availability, ensuring patients receive timely and appropriate care.

Transitional care beds will provide a dedicated recovery environment with appropriate medical oversight, helping patients regain strength before returning home or moving into long-term care.

This initiative will also reduce strain on frontline healthcare workers, create a more sustainable hospital system, and optimise healthcare delivery in WA.

Western Australians deserve a government with practical and targeted solutions that will strengthen Western Australia’s hospital system, ensuring every hospital bed is used efficiently and that patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Only a Liberal Government will take decisive action to fix Western Australia’s healthcare crisis.