Inquiry launched into WA’s exploding wait times for child development services

A parliamentary inquiry will probe the exploding delays West Australian children face to access developmental services as the median wait time to see a paediatrician blows out to 15 months in the public sector.

In a rare parliamentary showing, the motion – brought forward by a public petition – to establish a committee to review the bottlenecks came from opposition youth spokeswoman Donna Faragher and was supported by the state government through leader of the Legislative Council Sue Ellery.

Faragher said more than 17,000 children were currently waiting to access services such as speech pathology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy causing delays to diagnosis and therapy.

“There are 838 children waiting to see an audiologist, 1722 children waiting to see a clinical psychologist, 3739 children waiting to see an occupational therapist, 5154 children waiting to see a speech pathologist and – wait for it – 5944 children waiting to see a paediatrician,” she said.

“That is in metropolitan Perth alone. If we add the 1025 kids who are waiting to see a paediatrician in country WA, that amounts to 6969 kids across WA who right now are waiting to see a paediatrician in the public health system.”

An unnamed Perth paediatrician’s letter pleading for more support was also read during parliament by Faragher.

“As a paediatrician who has worked in this space for over 25 years I am concerned about the increasing rates and severity of mental health which includes anxiety, autism, attention deficit disorder and issues relating to child development,” the doctor said.

“My major concern is that these children are currently not receiving the evidence based early intervention they require to reach their potential.

“It needs to be mentioned that the private system has helped prop up the public system until recently, where there is no capacity within the private system to support the public system hence currently there are no available appointments for new patients, particularly those with neurodevelopmental disorders.”