States call emergency meeting, as Anthony Albanese keeps hospital funding negotiations behind closed doors

State and Territory leaders have vowed to co-ordinate their attack on health funding, but Roger Cook has jumped to the Prime Minister’s defence — despite previously accusing him of short-changing WA. An emergency meeting of Premiers and Chief Ministers was called on Wednesday, as negotiations for a new five-year public hospital funding deal stalled and Anthony Albanese demanded the States rein in spending growth. In August, Mr Cook said he gave the Albanese Government a “brick” on aged care, which he blamed for record ambulance ramping caused, in part, by up to 300 older patients being left stranded in hospitals. In October, the Premier said the Albanese Government’s latest hospital funding offer was “not good enough”. And on Tuesday, he called on the Commonwealth to honour the deal struck in 2023 to lift its share of public hospital activity funding to 45 per cent. ““They’re the ones that signed up to it,” Mr Cook said. On Wednesday, Mr Cook was displaying his best diplomatic skills, saying he was “hopeful” that a new agreement would be reached “soon”. “I’ve known this bloke for over 40 years, he has the same principles, the same values as I do when it come to making sure people can get the health care they need when they need it,” Premier said of Mr Albanese. Standing next to the Prime Minister, Mr Cook also denied he was “weak at the knees”. “Not at all, because the Prime Minister knows that I will always stand up for Western Australia,” the Premier said. “We’ll continue to make sure that we work with the Commonwealth to improve the full range of care opportunities across people’s life journey “I met with my fellow Premiers today and we are continuing to push forward with that conversation.” Mr Albanese said the States would not be short-changed and insisted negotiations would continue behind closed doors. “We’re working through those issues, we don’t conduct negotiations through public press conferences,” Mr Albanese said. “What we have on the table is an increased amount of funding. What was on the table at that time was $13 billion, we currently have $20 billion on the table.” The agreement is due to be finalised by the end of the year, and would take effect from July 2026. “If not, then the funding will rollover,” Mr Albanese said. “So the States have a big incentive on engaging constructively, because otherwise it rolls over for another year.” Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley accused the Prime Minister of shirking his responsibility on health. “Isn’t it extraordinary that the Prime Minister is mismanaging the economy so badly that he has now been forced to write to health ministers demanding that they have fewer sick people turn up in their hospitals?” she said. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said “cannoli diplomacy is off the menu” until a “fair” deal is offered. “This is a national issue, it’s a national crisis and it’s a national responsibility, and States and Territories across the board are uniting to rescue the stranded Australians,” he said. WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat said the State needs “better” from the Commonwealth. “It’s probably not a very helpful contribution from the Commonwealth to suggest that we need to reduce that funding,” she said. “We still need to meet those demands, which we’ve seen grow, because of the ageing population and the growing population. We’ll continue to do that, and we need the Federal Government to be our partner in that.” The political maneouvering came amid news WA’s virtual ED program for children would be expanded to run seven days a week next year, as part of efforts to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments. WAVEDKids, which has been operating on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10.30am to 8pm, is preparing to ramp up its service in the coming months. It will expand to open five days a week, and later seven. About 500 patients have been seen virtually since WaveKids began operating part-time in August. Medical director Ian Dey said about 90 per cent of children seen through the service did not have to go to a physical emergency department. The average wait time is 15 minutes, making WAVEDKids considerable quicker than hospital a regular hour’s long wait or more in hospital EDs. “The feedback from the parents who’ve utilised the service is (that it is) exceptionally good,” Dr Dey said. “They universally say that to get specialist advice at home which reassures them, which guides them as to what they have to do, and saves them the need to drive in an queue at an ED, is fantastic.”