Jessica Page: Embarrassing findings of WA hospital audit should trigger Government into action

To fix anything, first you have to admit there’s a problem.

This was the Cook Government’s mea culpa moment.

Whether it was blissfully, or deliberately, ignorant of disrepair in some of Perth’s hospitals it has now been forced into action.

Better late than never.

John Carey called the results of the snap audit “frank and fearless”.

It was also embarrassing, five months after The West Australian’s Hospital Of Horrors investigation was initially met with bare-faced denials.

Let’s rewind to August, when the Government insisted hundreds of work orders for leaks and mould were nothing to worry about.

Roger Cook accused Basil Zempilas of mounting a scare campaign.

“We had the flailing of the arms this morning, don’t go to hospital, don’t go to hospital, scaring West Australians,” the Premier said in Parliament.

“I’ll commit to assuring Western Australians that they can have confidence in their health care system, Mr Speaker. I’ll commit to holding the Leader of the Opposition to account when he puts the fear of God into Western Australians.”

John Carey tried to cling to the fine print.

“The paper focused on this idea there was radioactive waste leak. That’s not the case,” he said.

“Between January 2023 and June 2025, 592 work orders were raised, though many were duplicates reflecting pro-active reporting by staff.”

Fast-forward to now and it’s been revealed there was nothing pro-active about the systems in place.

Another phrase has been banned. No one will dare repeat the Premier’s past insistence that WA’s health system is world class.

That was an insult to the doctors and nurses who were repeatedly filing maintenance requests, reporting mushrooms growing on ceilings, and getting band-aid solutions.

This report was handed to the Government in November.

It waited until this week to release the dirty laundry so it could honestly argue that it is already acting on the findings.

There’s no denying the problem now.

But the Premier’s decision to sit out the confessional on Thursday might raise eyebrows. Ditto the Health Minister, after both fronted happier health announcements on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And that the State’s Health Department boss only begrudgingly conceded that “perhaps” she could have done more to raise the alarm sooner.

It was left to the Health Infrastructure Minister to cop it on the chin.

Mr Carey refused to throw past and present health ministers, or bureaucrats, under the bus and declared the buck stops with him.

“I like crazy brave,” was AMA President Kyle Hoath’s reaction to that.

Harsh diagnosis done, now is time for the cure.

Whether Mr Carey can deliver on his promise to complete the $50 million maintenance blitz by September, and an overhaul to prevent the backlog getting even worse, will decide whether the public can forgive or forget.

The Opposition will be determined not to let them. The medicine will be bitter, but it’s well-deserved.