‘Disrespectful’: Mettam accused of running women’s hospital scare campaign

Helping Little Hands chief executive Joanne Beedie rejected accusations from Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson that parents were being scared by a Liberal misinformation campaign over the location of the $1.8 billion Women and Babies Hospital.

Flanked by parents of vulnerable newborns Beatty, a vocal opponent of the hospital being built in Murdoch, backed Liberal leader Libby Mettam’s election promise to tear up construction agreements and build it at QEII next to Perth Children’s Hospital.

Liberal leader Libby Mettam and Helping Little Hands chief executive Joanne Beatty flanked by parents of vulnerable newborns.Credit: Hamish Hastie

An hour earlier Sanderson accused Mettam of scaring parents by twisting facts from a 2023 business case that triggered the government’s decision to abandon QEII.

“The leader of the Liberal Party Libby Mettam continues to misrepresent what is in the business case, and she is leading a campaign of misinformation and is frightening prospective parents, and I’m calling on her to stop,” she said.

“If we could have built the hospital on the [QEII] site safely, of course, the government would have done that, but we were faced with unmitigated risks and we had to make a clear-eyed decision about what was in the best interests.”

Sanderson said the majority of clinicians supported the Murdoch location.

Beedie said Sanderson’s comments were disrespectful and rejected her claim that clinicians supported the government’s decision.

“I think it’s really quite a disrespectful comment to suggest that, simply because we’re parents and not clinicians, that we don’t have an appropriate voice or a level of our own expertise,” she said.

“[Vulnerable babies] are fighting for their lives and to impose a journey of over 20 kilometres in an ambulance built into your system, is just wrong.

“The conversations I have repeatedly are with clinicians who are incredibly upset, angered and worried about the future.”

Mettam’s promise to tear up construction contracts and build the facility at Perth Children’s Hospital — where some 200 vulnerable babies a year receive urgent medical treatment hours after their birth — has opened up a major election battlefield with Labor.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Mettam said her opposition to Labor’s plan reflected concerns from staff in the government’s own Child and Adolescent Health Services which were detailed in October 2023.

“These are not the assumptions that I’m making as the leader of the Liberal Party, these are the words and the reports made by the government’s own top clinicians,” she said.

”The government should listen to her own clinicians within the government’s own department. She should read her own business case and the CAHS report.”

Sanderson said building on such a constrained site in Nedlands meant the hospital wouldn’t be built for 20 years – placing more pressure on the ageing King Edward Memorial Hospital.

She also reiterated the risks associated with the Nedlands site.

“Those risks were to access to Charlie’s emergency department, access to Perth Children’s Hospital emergency department, ongoing access to the site where 14,000 people come in and out every single day.”

Health remains the focus of both parties this week with Labor announcing cash injections into both Ronald McDonald House and Cancer Council to improve accommodation for people travelling to Perth regionally for treatment.

The government has promised $50 million for Ronald McDonald House’s $100 million plans to expand its 47-room facility by a further 75 rooms.

Another $25 million will be provided to Cancer Council to expand its Milroy Lodge facility by a further 130 beds - up from the 29 already there.

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