Tom Brough voices support for Albany Health Campus capacity inquiry at Let’s Talk Albany community forum

Albany Liberal candidate and emergency doctor Thomas Brough says there is “absolutely a case” to request an inquiry into the service capacity of Albany Health Campus, reporting a lack of beds has led to patients waiting in corridors for treatment. Speaking on a panel with other political hopefuls at the Lets Talk Albany community forum on February 11, Mr Brough, who works at the hospital, affirmed his support for an inquiry following an anecdote of patient neglect from an audience member. Mr Brough attributed Albany’s increasing and ageing population, lack of private hospital to offset care, and large regional catchment area as reasons the hospital cannot cater for the mass of patients it receives. ”Since the hospital was built, our population has grown by about 16 per cent and we were only just scraping through back in 2013,” he said. “I’m sure many of you have been to the emergency department and seen the doctors, the nurses, the theatre staff, the cleaners, the administrative staff, the security staff, doing their absolute darn best to look after the people because that’s what all those frontline workers are trying to do. “But if they’re working within a system which hasn’t set them up for success, there are going to be failures.” Specifying he did not speak on behalf of the WA Country Health Service, Mr Brough estimated the facility — which currently offers 130-beds — has fewer than half the beds it needs to comfortably cater to the Great Southern’s population. Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson did not address the idea of an inquiry but defended the AHC as a provider of “world-class care”. “While the Liberal candidate is happy to throw barbs, he and his party have no plans for the future of Albany Health Campus, other than a talk fest which will only serve to delay change at the hospital,” she said. A $320 million business case to expand the hospital over a six-year-period has been in the works since 2021. An report by WA Country Health Service the following year said the hospital had an “inability to meet the patient care demand” of the community. The Liberal candidate was one of six speakers at the Retravision Stadium forum, joining fellow lower house contenders Australian Christians candidate Gerrit Ballast and Independent Mario Lionetti, and incumbent upper house politicians Louise Kingston and Sophia Moermond. Giz Watson stepped in on behalf of Greens candidate Lynn MacLaren. More than 70 people attended the event hosted by former One Nation candidate Michelle Kinsella to hear members of the panel pitch themselves as prospects in the upcoming election. Hot topics included housing, renewable energy, the cost of living crisis, functioning of the AHC, vaccine mandates, gun control, education, the prospect of an Albany marine park, and crime. A common theme was a cry against “wokeism” in the Albany community, with Ms Moermond urging the crowd to fight issues such as gender identity confusion “with science”. Mr Ballast added that “woke ideology has become a religion in its own right” that goes “against truth” and Mr Brough said he “certainly wouldn’t be in opposition” if Albany became “the place where woke goes to die”. Ms Kingston, Mr Lionetti and Ms Moermond made passionate declarations against wind turbines on the basis they were not cost-effective and polluted the environment in their construction, with Ms Kingston advocating for small nuclear modular reactors instead. Ms Watson cut a lonely figure amid the other candidates, standing in favour of gun reform, vaccine mandates, complex gender identity, and renewable energies such as solar and wind. Neither incumbent Albany MLA Rebecca Stephens nor Nationals candidate Scott Leary attended with both saying they were invited by email at late notice after advertising had begun with Mr Leary’s invite ending up in his spam folder. Mr Leary was set to join a second Let’s Talk Albany event with Mr Lionetti, Mr Ballast, Mr Brough and Ms Kingston at Mt Barker Community Resource Centre on February 19 at 6.30pm.