Premier Roger Cook to fly to Canberra next week for meeting with PM Anthony Albanese over WA health crisis

The blame game over the State’s worsening ambulance ramping and emergency department wait times will dominate discussions between the Premier and Prime Minister at a face-to-face meeting in Canberra next week. Just 24-hours after the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected criticism from the Premier that the Federal Government was responsible for the strain on WA’s health system, Roger Cook announced his last-minute trip to the nation’s capital. “I’m sure the Prime Minister is right that they’re making record investments in relation to the provision of aged care. The fact of the matter remains, though, that Western Australia does not receive its fair share,” Mr Cook said. “Either home care packages or aged care beds, and that’s one of the things we’ll be talking to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health about next week, when I’m in Canberra.” During his visit to Perth on Sunday, Mr Albanese backed his Government’s “biggest reforms” to aged care in a century alongside billions of dollars in investment for taking pressure off hospitals. “We have an additional $1.7 billion we put into the hospital system this year nationally,” the Prime Minister said. “We’ve tripled the bulk-billing incentive so that . . . more people have access to bulkbilling and going to see their GP. The urgent care clinics I’ve been to here in the west as well, what that’s doing is taking pressure off the hospitals by providing an intermediate care sector.” The Cook Government — which announced on Monday it would pump $50 million into addressing the State’s health system — isn’t backing down from its war of words with Canberra, with Health Minister Meredith Hammat and Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Simone McGurk to accompany the Premier on his face-to-face visit with the PM. “There’s always issues that we need to talk about in relation to defending the rights and interests of Western Australians,” Mr Cook said. “We have a strong relationship with the Commonwealth Government, particularly in healthcare. The work we’re doing with them on our urgent care clinics is a really important part of fixing primary health care “They’re investing significantly the NDIS aged care is another area where we want Western Australians to benefit from their great investments.” It’s unclear what day the Premier and his team will leave next week.