Eight-bed outback hospital costs $67m, three times original budget

A new eight-bed hospital in regional Western Australia has reached practical completion with a final construction cost of $67 million. This figure represents a total expenditure of more than $8 million per bed, tripling the project's original budget.

Western Australian Health Minister Meredith Hammat has publicly defended the project's financial outcome. The facility is intended to serve the outback region, though the significant cost overrun has drawn attention to the scale of the investment relative to the hospital's capacity.