Bunbury's $10m coronary unit lies idle

The $10 million coronary care unit at Bunbury’s St John of God Hospital is yet to open its doors to patients three months after it was opened with great fanfare.

The eight-bed facility, the first of its kind in regional WA, is fitted the latest cardiac equipment but the hospital is still trying to attract specialist staff to run it.

St John of God Bunbury Hospital chief executive officer Mark Grime said the facility would “definitely open” in the future, but only when it was safe for patients.

Mr Grime admitted it was a challenge to attract specialist clinical staff to regional areas and said the hospital had been trying to recruit staff for the past 10 months.

Each year, almost 3000 South West residents are hospitalised in Perth for acute cardiac conditions, or have to travel to Perth to undergo cardiac angiography.

The coronary care unit was built to give people in the South West quicker access to cardiac services, closer to their homes.

It was officially opened in February by Bunbury MLA John Castrilli and South West MLC Colin Holt.

Mr Grime said while he could not set an opening date, he expected more specialist doctors would be moving to Bunbury during the next year.

“I am not concerned it is sitting empty, that would not push me to open it early without a sustainable workforce,” Mr Grime said.

Australian Medical Association WA president Richard Choong said the challenge of recruiting specialist staff in regions was a Statewide and national issue.

“It is also important to consider a range of issues when trying to attract medical professionals into regional areas, not just salary,” Dr Choong said.

South West MLC Adele Farina said the situation highlighted the difficulty in recruiting doctors and nurses to the South West and the failure of the State Government to address this problem.

“The Barnett Government’s failure to address doctor and nurse recruitment problems resulted in the Bunbury ICU sitting idle for many months,” she said.

The State Government needed to act immediately to address recruitment problems and ensure the coronary unit was opened urgently.