The West Australian premier has dismissed claims medical staff are afraid of being fired for speaking against Fiona Stanley Hospital and says "grizzlers" must accept it is a world class facility.
Senior clinicians have criticised the hospital's bed capacity, waiting list and standard of care in a letter to The Sunday Times.
But Premier Colin Barnett says the comments are outrageous and any suggestions of bullying are untrue.
"As if they're going to be sacked," he told reporters on Sunday.
"No one is going to persecute people for expressing their opinions.
"You could go into any hospital in Australia, public or private, and find something to grizzle about if you go in with an intention of grizzling.
"I am sick of the grizzlers."
Opposition health spokesman Roger Cook said the letter showed the health system was in revolt against the government.
"They're sick of the dysfunction, they're sick of the mismanagement and they're sick of the budget bungling and they're sick of the privatisation of our health system," he told reporters.
"Doctors aren't whingers. Doctors in this case are the canary in the coalmine - they're the ones that are signalling that our health system is sick."
But Mr Barnett says the hospital, which has been open for just over one year, is probably the best in the southern hemisphere.
Share
