Closer hospital ties sought

There are plans for an overflowing public hospital and an at times under-used private hospital to increase their sharing of resources.

St John of God Hospital is looking to expand the scope of its services to the Geraldton Hospital through the WA Country Health Service Mid West.

The private hospital’s chief executive Paul Dyer said partnerships between public and private hospitals in Geraldton dated back more than a decade and were helping to address pressure on the public hospital.

“We have a public hospital overflowing and a private hospital under-utilised at times,” he said.

“So why wouldn’t we work together to ensure the community gets the best use of the beds which are already here?”

Mr Dyer was commenting on repeated calls for the State and Federal Governments to jointly fund a $100 million upgrade to the Geraldton Hospital.

He said the sharing of public and private services were in many ways the perfect solution for the Mid West.

“The private and public palliative care services in the Mid West are a shining example of how two services can be seamlessly integrated to ensure patients receive the best care possible,” Mr Dyer said.

He said the relationship between St John of God Hospital and Geraldton Hospital was continuing to strengthen, with St John of God now providing multiple surgical and medical services to the region on behalf of WA Country Health Services.

“Both hospitals share the same medical director (Dr Andrew Jamieson),” he said.

“We already collaborate on medical recruitment, streamlining patient transfers and staff education.

“Our operating theatres share staff and equipment and our engineering departments collaborate on planned maintenance to ensure savings are achieved for both parties on travel costs to Perth.”

In Federal Parliament last month Durack MHR Melissa Price raised the issue of pressure on Geraldton Hospital and said the State Government and St John of God Hospital were discussing increasing the number of beds shared by both hospitals.

She called on the State Government to accelerate those discussions to resolve the urgent bed shortage at Geraldton Hospital.

But Agriculture Region MLC Paul Brown said this was a “stop-gap solution”.

He added Prime Minister Tony Abbott had committed to fund a Geraldton Hospital upgrade during his term of government.

Mr Brown said if this pledge was honoured, Royalties for Regions money would be available to share the estimated $110 million cost of the upgrade.