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WA spends a quarter more in real terms on public hospitals than in 2016-17, and has added staff far faster than beds. Yet ED waits, surgery waits, ambulance response times and ramping have all got worse, and each patient now costs about 16% more than the national average.

Sources: Productivity Commission ROGS 2026, Section 12 Public hospitals and Section 11 Ambulance services; WA 2026-27 Budget Paper 3; AMA Ambulance Ramping Report Card 2026; our log of 6,706 WA Government media statements (Jan 2023 to Oct 2026). ROGS dollar figures are real (inflation-adjusted) dollars for the year shown.

This page covers WA's public hospitals, ambulance services and hospital building projects. Health is the biggest item in the 2026-27 State Budget, at $16.8bn (Budget Paper 3).

Findings

1. More money, more staff, barely more beds

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: Real recurrent spending on WA public hospitals went from $9,886m (2016-17) to $12,414m (2023-24), up 26% (2023-24 dollars; ROGS 12A.1).
  • Fact: Hospital staff per 1,000 people went from 14.0 to 17.9 (+28%). Available beds per 1,000 went from 2.3 to 2.4 (ROGS 12A.9, 12A.4).
  • Fact: Administrative and clerical staff per 1,000 went from 3.0 to 4.0 (+33%), now well above the national rate of 3.2. Nurses rose from 5.3 to 6.7 and salaried doctors from 1.7 to 2.4 (ROGS 12A.9).
  • Our read: WA hospitals have far more people on the payroll per resident, but almost no more beds to put patients in. The admin rate is about 25% above the national average.

2. Each patient costs more than in the rest of the country

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: Recurrent cost per weighted separation, a casemix-adjusted cost per patient admitted: WA $6,781 (2016-17) to $7,179 (2023-24). Australia $5,700 to $6,211 (2023-24 dollars; ROGS 12A.55).
  • Our read: WA was 19% above the national average in 2016-17 and is still 16% above it. If WA hospitals ran at the national cost, the gap is roughly $590m a year (606,000 weighted separations × $968).

3. Waits got worse on every measure

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: ED patients leaving within four hours: 73.8% (2016-17) to 53.9% (2024-25). ED presentations rose from 835,545 to 1,027,016 (+23%) (ROGS 12A.18).
  • Fact: Elective surgery, all procedures: median wait 35 to 45 days; 90th percentile 186 to 267 days (+44%). Hip replacement median 85 to 125 days, knee replacement median 100 to 155 days (ROGS 12A.23).
  • Fact: Ambulance response, Perth 90th percentile: 14.5 to 18.6 minutes; median 8.5 to 10.1 minutes (ROGS 11A.5).

4. Ramping at record levels

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: WA Health data shows about 63,334 ramped hours in 2024-25, up from about 48,000 in 2023-24. St John WA's dashboard shows 65,054. September 2025 was the worst month on record at 7,268 hours (AMA Ramping Report Card 2026).
  • Fact: Calendar 2020 had 25,902 ramped hours (St John WA, via ABC, 3 Jan 2022).
  • Our read: Ramping is about 2.4 times its 2020 level even after six years of record health budgets. (The 2020 and 2024-25 periods differ: calendar vs financial year.)

5. Women and Babies Hospital: the official figure hasn't moved, so watch the pooled fund

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: Estimated total cost in the WA Health Asset Investment Program: $10.2m planning line (2022-23 BP2) → $1,787.0m (2023-24) → $1,784.8m (2024-25) → $1,781.9m (2025-26) → $1,781.9m (2026-27). Spending in 2026-27 BP2 is $893.1m in 2026-27 and $450.8m in 2027-28 (BP2 Vol 1, WA Health AIP, each year; WA Budget Papers).
  • Fact: The government repeated "$1.8bn" in 8 media statements, Apr 2023 to Nov 2025 (our media-statement log, e.g. WA Government).
  • Fact (leaked, not officially confirmed): an April 2025 Department of Health "tender release" document, shared by the Opposition during question time on 17 Sep 2025, put the estimate at $1.954bn against the $1.787bn approval, with completion on 14 Oct 2030. The Minister said it pre-dated OMID and the Webuild contract, and that "OMID has advised completion in 2029 and the previously announced budget remain correct" (WAtoday/SMH 17 Sep 2025). In Parliament that day he confirmed only the 2029 opening, not the cost (Hansard LA 17 Sep 2025, Q456–457).
  • Fact: On 13 Apr 2026 the Premier said he could not guarantee $1.8bn, "and there are commissioning costs on top of that" (ABC).
  • Fact: The dedicated New Women and Babies Hospital Account is being closed by 30 June 2026. Its last drawdown is $391.8m in 2025-26, and the remaining $1.36bn moves into the general Building Hospitals Fund (2026-27 Budget Paper No. 3).
  • Our read: The $1.954bn figure is a leaked internal estimate the government disputes. No official source confirms it. The real story is that the Premier won't guarantee the price while the dedicated account is wound up, making any overrun harder to see.

6. Other hospital projects: Joondalup up 18%, Peel rescheduled

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: Joondalup Health Campus Development Stage 2, estimated total cost: $255.2m (2021-22 BP2) → $254.5m (2022-23) → $267.3m (2023-24) → $277.3m (2024-25) → $296.6m (2025-26) → $300.6m (2026-27), +18% in five budgets (BP2 Vol 1, WA Health AIP each year … WA Budget Papers).
  • Fact: Peel Health Campus Redevelopment (the "$152m" project): estimated total cost $149.9m (2023-24 BP2), $142.7m (2024-25), $142.9m (2025-26). The 2023-24 budget planned $99.1m of spending in 2026-27, but by 2025-26 the schedule had shifted, with $61.3m in 2026-27 and $21.3m in 2028-29. The line does not appear in the 2026-27 WA Health AIP (only "Transition Cost" $1.2m and "Expansion of ED" $3.6m), and we could not find where the rest has moved.

7. Auditor General and review findings

Updated 13 Oct 2026

  • Fact: The OAG found WA Health entities processed about $987m of payments outside their procure-to-pay system in 2024-25, many via a "direct payments" pathway that skips the four levels of approval required by the Treasurer's Instructions. The Department of Health received a qualified controls opinion (OAG, State Government 2025 – Financial Audit Results).
  • Fact: The OAG found ED data "remains unauditable for the purposes of annual audits of State entity controls and key performance indicators". There were 18,899 ED data errors in 2023-24 (OAG Report 4: 2024-25, Quality and Utilisation of Emergency Department Data).
  • Fact: The government-commissioned Barnes/Fong health maintenance audit (released 15 Jan 2026) found about 75% (NMHS) and 77% (EMHS) of maintenance was reactive, no system-wide condition data, and no master plans for Royal Perth or QEII. All 24 findings were accepted (media statement 15 Jan 2026).
  • Our read: The ED waiting numbers in finding 3 come from a data system the Auditor General says can't be audited.