Plans to manage high-risk births at WA’s new Women and Babies Hospital represent the government doubling down on a “wrong decision”, the doctors’ lobby says.
The hospital is being built next to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, about 20 kilometres from Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) where some infants will need to be transferred for specialist care.
Doctors and parents have long said the distance is unacceptable and called on the government to find a way of building the hospital on the QEII campus in Nedlands to make it easier for women and babies to be transferred to PCH and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
Doctors say the new hospital, which is currently under construction, is too far from existing facilities. (ABC News: Courtney Withers )
But the government maintains that is impossible without unacceptable disruption to other hospitals on the site, or intolerable delays.
Instead, the government has now outlined how it intends to allay the concerns of medical professionals and families by expanding existing services.
Neonate transfer upgrade
Paediatric services at Fiona Stanley Hospital will be upgraded, including extra specialist staff and services, and a second Newborn Emergency Transport Service (NETS) base established for babies who need to be transferred from the new hospital.
New $1.8b maternity hospital to be built at Fiona Stanley
“We’ve heard from clinicians that the time for the baby to reach the NETS team is a key consideration,” Health Minister Meredith Hammat said.
“These are specialised staff, these are like mobile intensive care units and so they do provide that critical opportunity to stabilise a baby and transport them, so that is why we’re making the decision about having a base here.”
The government also believes locating a team at Murdoch will help with the timely transfer of babies from regional hospitals, because it is closer to Jandakot Airport where Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft land.
Meredith Hammat says it is the right decision. (ABC News: Courtney Withers )
More beds
Around $95 million has been set aside to add an extra 19 beds to PCH’s neonatal intensive care unit.
Two adult beds will be added to handle a “very small number of cases” where women needed to birth at the children’s hospital.
A new high-risk birthing unit is due to be built at Perth Children’s Hospital. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
A consultation report, dated November 2025 but only tabled in parliament today, revealed clinicians rejected the idea of creating a smaller “satellite” facility to allow for births at PCH “due to clinical safety risks, limited workforce sustainability and fragmentation of services”.
Doctors issue warning over maternity hospital move
Ms Hammat said few women would give birth at PCH.
“It would only apply in those circumstances, a small number of circumstances, where a parent might also need to continue to receive treatment,” Ms Hammat said.
Ongoing concerns
Australian Medical Association WA president Kyle Hoath said while the government’s announcements were welcome, the profession still wanted the new hospital to be built at the QEII site.
Doctors want the new hospital to be built at the QEII site. (ABC News: Gregor Salmon)
“I appreciate that it’s a full site that’s difficult to make those allowances on, but this isn’t good enough,” he said. “We have a separation of services that need to be next to each other.”
Opposition Health spokesperson Libby Mettam also wants a maternity hospital at the QEII site and said the government’s plans were “flawed”.
“It will still require a 20-kilometre journey for neonates requiring high-risk surgery at Perth Children’s Hospital,” she said.
Work begins on Perth’s new $1.8b maternity hospital
Dr Hoath said his members believed between 100 and 200 babies a year would need to be moved to PCH.
The government’s response to the November 2025 consultation report notes there is “no consensus on the size of the cohort needing ‘time-critical neonatal transfer'”.
The upgrades at PCH will require admin staff to be moved out of the building and the relocation of a surgical ward.
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