Ambulance ramping: 30 new beds added to Bunbury Hospital to ease pressure on regional WA’s busiest hospital

A new 30-bed modular ward has been opened at one of the State’s largest regional hospitals on the back a huge spike in ambulance ramping hours. The new facilities at Bunbury Hospital will be open to patients from next Thursday, as part of a $152 million investment in ready-to-fit units at four public health campuses across WA. So far this month, Bunbury Regional Hospital has recorded 65.5 hours of ramping, making up 82 per cent of regional WA’s total ambulance ramping. WA’s regional hospitals have recorded a combined 79.8 hours of ramping as of Friday, September 23. Bunbury’s new modular ward is part of a $152 million program to install the ready-to-fit units at four of WA’s public hospitals in a targeted approach to boosting the State’s hospital capacity. When fully operational, the new ward will add a cohort of 60 new staff to the hospital, made up of a mix of doctors, nurses and allied health specialists. Bunbury MLA Don Punch and Bunbury Regional Hospital director Jeff Calver took a tour of the ward on Friday afternoon with hospital and construction staff. Mr Punch said that as WA’s busiest regional hospital, the Bunbury campus played a “pivotal role” for the entire region. “This is a great outcome not just for Bunbury, but for the whole South West,” he said. Mr Calver said staff would start transferring patients to the ward on Thursday, with recruitment plans in place to have the ward functioning to its full potential within the coming months. “We will be on a transitional phase over the next two to three months to have this ward fully operational,” Mr Calver said. “We need to make sure there is adequate staffing, and we do need to make sure that patients are kept safe. “Those are my two key priorities that will guide what timeline we will be able to be fully operational by.” He said ambulance ramping was a “multifaceted and very complex issue” that could not be solved with new beds alone, but the new ward would go some way to easing pressure on the hospital campus. “We would hope this would assist with patient flow throughout the hospital,” Mr Calver said. Collie-Preston MLA Jodie Hanns said having 30 more beds in Bunbury was a “significant capacity boost” for the entire South West. “The McGowan Government is also investing more than $200 million to redevelop the hospital, which will deliver substantial benefits to our local community,” she said.