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.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6a665360897616e98e8a11535e64477f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Doctors say the new hospital, which is currently under construction, is too far from existing facilities. (ABC News: Courtney Withers\u00a0)<\/p>\n
But the government maintains that is impossible without unacceptable disruption to other hospitals on the site, or intolerable delays.<\/p>\n
Instead, the government has now outlined how it intends to allay the concerns of medical professionals and families by expanding existing services.<\/p>\n
Neonate transfer upgrade<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
New $1.8b maternity hospital to be built at Fiona Stanley<\/a><\/p>\n The WA premier announces plans to build a maternity hospital at the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre will no longer go ahead, instead committing almost $2b to a site in Perth’s south.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Meredith Hammat says it is the right decision. (ABC News: Courtney Withers\u00a0)<\/p>\n More beds<\/p>\n Around $95 million has been set aside to add an extra 19 beds to PCH’s neonatal intensive care unit.<\/p>\n Two adult beds will be added to handle a “very small number of cases” where women needed to birth at the children’s hospital.<\/p>\n A new high-risk birthing unit is due to be built at Perth Children’s Hospital. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n 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”.<\/p>\n Doctors issue warning over maternity hospital move<\/a><\/p>\n Doctors\u00a0fear plans to move WA’s\u00a0main women’s and babies’ hospital 20 kilometres from its current location risk\u00a0increased “mortality and morbidity” of critically unwell infants.<\/p>\n Ms Hammat said few women would give birth at PCH.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n Ongoing concerns<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Doctors want the new hospital to be built at the QEII site. (ABC News: Gregor Salmon)<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Opposition Health spokesperson Libby Mettam also wants a maternity hospital at the QEII site and said the government’s plans were “flawed”.<\/p>\n “It will still require a 20-kilometre journey for neonates requiring high-risk surgery at Perth Children’s Hospital,” she said.<\/p>\n Work begins on Perth’s new $1.8b maternity hospital<\/a><\/p>\n Perth’s new Women and Babies Hospital will open on time, the state government insists, but it says the $1.8 billion budget may blow out.<\/p>\n Dr Hoath said his members believed between 100 and 200 babies a year would need to be moved to PCH.<\/p>\n 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'”.<\/p>\n The upgrades at PCH will require admin staff to be moved out of the building and the relocation of a surgical ward.<\/p>\n Do you know more?<\/p>\n Contact Keane Bourke on encrypted email<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"MId-shot](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6b8863d5544ce407aa95bc23d5730557.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/62476be2704d6b0180a2a41e20fdefeb.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/03d99d4f459d7ceba185c2d4dc77e55b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n