Libby Mettam: Delays are harming our kids

We all want to see our children grow up healthy, happy, and well cared for.

That’s why it’s astounding that, in a State as prosperous as WA, our children are waiting up to three and a half years to see a paediatrician.

No one in our society should spend three years trying to see a specialist, or any health service for that matter, let alone our most vulnerable.

Yet these figures don’t lie.

There are currently 9762 children waiting to see a paediatrician and 4288 children waiting to see a speech pathologist.

Of the 9762 children awaiting a paediatric appointment, 8308 are of primary school age, marking a 35 per cent increase from last year’s figure of 6120. Their median wait time has also surged, rising unchecked from 17.8 months last year to 23.5 months in 2024.

The consequences of these delays are not just inconvenient; they can have serious, long-lasting impacts on the health and development of children.

Children with developmental delays, chronic illnesses, or mental health challenges cannot afford to wait. When care is delayed, we risk exacerbating conditions that could have been managed effectively with prompt treatment.

This is not just a matter of healthcare; it is fundamentally about safeguarding the overall well-being and future of our children. It is about ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive, grow, and develop in a healthy and supported environment.

Unfortunately, the long wait times faced by children continue to highlight evidence of a public health system that is spiralling further into crisis due to inaction from the Cook Labor Government.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson was quick to try to spin the reason for the long paediatrician wait times as being due to “a global shortage of paediatricians”, stating that the Cook Labor Government is trying to resolve the issues by “recruiting internationally”.

Yet again, no responsibility. Just another excuse.

Incredibly, it’s not like the Government was not warned of the long-term impacts of their inaction.

The WA Parliament’s Select Committee into Child Development Services released a report in April that made 57 recommendations to enhance the child development system; however, the Health Minister has taken no decisive action.

While the minister has provided some belated funding for specific areas, it falls far short of the comprehensive overhaul that is desperately needed.

The minister’s response has been reactive rather than proactive, addressing only a fraction of the issues highlighted in the report.

The reality is that the minister’s stated workforce issues have always been there and have grown under Labor’s watch.

The reality is long-term calls from the Health Department’s Child and Adolescent Health Services for additional funding — following a 52 per cent increase in referrals for these services in the past decade—– existed before the report was released.

The reality is our children are being let down by a Government that has continually failed to appropriately fund, resource, and manage the Child Development Service in the first place.

Put simply, this government isn’t doing enough.

Shadow early childhood education minister Donna Faragher’s response was clear: “If nearly 10,000 children on a waitlist to access a paediatrician is not enough to push this Government into action, then I do not know what is.”

This is a Government that continues to ignore the pleas for assistance and the calls for urgent intervention. A Government that seems unfazed by the delays in accessing critical services such as speech pathology, paediatrics, occupational therapy, and clinical psychology, and the profound impacts they will have on the development of those affected children.

At the very basic level, if a child can’t hear, they can’t learn. And, if a child is waiting months for an assessment for a behavioural disorder, they can’t be properly supported.

These are not optional extra appointments, especially not for families whose children are seeking help with diagnosing medical conditions such as autism and ADHD.

Both require immediate intervention, and often medication and support which can only be authorised by a paediatrician.

In the meantime, families pleading for help will watch their children fall behind at school, adding to the workloads of teachers and the school system until they can be diagnosed and receive extra assistance.

Parents have every right to be asking why this Government isn’t prioritising these services. Why are they able to find an extra $10 billion for Metronet, but can’t seem to find any extra to fund critical child health services?

The reality is that Premier Cook — the former health minister — is responsible for these very health issues and has been instrumental in running our public health system into the ground since Labor took power in 2017.

When Labor was elected in 2017, WA nurses were the highest-paid in the nation. Seven years later, they are among the worst.

This is, again, despite WA being in the best financial position of all States in the nation.

Under Labor, we continue to have record ambulance ramping and see patients kept overnight in corridors because of no available beds. We have record waiting lists for specialists — across all ages — and for elective surgeries, while overworked and underpaid health workers struggle to keep up in a system in crisis.

A government that I lead will rebuild our healthcare system, returning it to the world-class standard it was seven years ago. We will increase funding and access to critical child development services across WA.

We are committed to investing in our nurses, clinics, and hospitals to ensure our children are not forgotten.

A Liberal government will do better.

That’s what WA deserves.

Libby Mettam is the leader of the Liberals