Roger Cook demands private operator of Midland hospital answer for great-grandmother’s 48-hour ordeal

Roger Cook has been forced into apologising to a Perth great-grandmother after claiming corridor care was “normal” as hospitals “flex” to meet demand. The Premier had described 88-year-old Elsie Gribben’s two days in a corridor as “not ideal” but a “normal part” of hospital practices to “flex up and flex down” after The West Australian exposed the issue. In Parliament on Tuesday, four days later, Mr Cook appeared to shift his language and offered Mrs Gribben a public apology before going on to blame population growth for the problem. “Someone being in a hospital corridor for 48 hours is not acceptable, it’s not acceptable,” he said. “And we apologise to the inconvenience of the patient and their family . . . we will obviously investigate the circumstances of that”. But Mr Cook said St John of God Health needs to explain. “The hospital was a privatised hospital run by St John of God, so we’ve asked them to explain the circumstances.” Mr Cook said. “You (Opposition MP’s) would know it’s a privatised hospital because you privatised it.” The Midland hospital is operated under a public-private partnership between the State Government and St John of God Health Care, but the ED is public. Mr Cook angrily denied calling corridor care “the new normal”, when asked by Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas. “I never said that,” Mr Cook said. But he was howled down by the Opposition benches when he blamed growing demand for Ms Gribben’s treatment. “The hospitals use the opportunity to move patients around, to deal with peaks demand,” Mr Cook said. “48 hours is too long, I’ve just said that, it’s not acceptable that someone receives that experience in a hospital setting. “But we know our hospitals are under pressure, we know that hospitals are dealing with an increase in demand. We have a growing population and an ageing population”. Opposition MP’s crowed “bingo” and waved new home-made bingo cards, made up of phrases they’ve dubbed Labor’s blame game. SJOG Midland declined to comment. “Final note, at the last election there was only one party that said that they would commit to expanding Midland hospital,” Mr Cook said. “That was the WA Labor Party. And the WA voters backed us by re-electing us.” Pressed by Mr Zempilas over whether he has personally apologised to Ms Gribben, he said he would - if given the opportunity.