The West Australian opposition has promised to build one of the state's first medi-hotels and a new family birth centre at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth's southern suburbs at a cost of $40 million.
However Labor health spokesman Roger Cook has had to defend the party's push for metropolitan medi-hotels, which are for patients discharged from hospital but still recovering, after Kalgoorlie-Boulder doctors labelled the plan "a stupid idea" and "political blah blah".
The doctors say more local resources in country areas are what is really needed.
Mr Cook conceded on Friday that regional patients would rather be treated closer to home but said the reality was many were forced to travel to Perth for complex operations.
"When that's needed, we've got to make sure we've got the best services for them," he told reporters.
Health Minister John Day said Labor's plan was at best a very low priority as the Liberals were already adding beds to hospitals, expanding services in regional WA and supporting patients who had to go to Perth for care.
Mr Day said the opposition had now made $105 million worth of commitments at Joondalup, Fiona Stanley and Royal Perth hospitals, claiming they would be paid for with existing and new funds.
"What Labor needs to explain is what existing funding is going to be diverted to these taxpayer-funded hotels that they are talking about," he said.
"What jobs are going to be taken out of the health system, what services are going to be lost at other hospitals?"
Mr Cook said a medi-hotel in Darwin had cost about $30 million, so the birth centre would represent about $10 million of the remaining cost estimate.
Some of the cash would come from Royalties for Regions but efficiencies of some $60 million per year would be extracted from the hospital system as a result of Labor's changes, Mr Cook said.
Mr Cook said Labor had done modelling where a medi-hotel bed would cost about $220 a night compared to $2500-$3500 a night for a tertiary hospital bed.
Patients travelling from the regions to the city, many of whom were indigenous with kidney problems, may be able to use the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme to access a medi-hotel, he said.
"That's our belief," Mr Cook said.
But Premier Colin Barnett said Labor's plan was foolish, lacking credibility and "partly born out of envy" after the Liberals spent bucketloads on hospitals over two terms.
People wanted to get in and out of hospitals as quickly as possible and recuperate in the comfort of their homes, he said.
