The West Australian state government has been asked to justify the construction of a new medihotel designed to ease the burden on Perth hospitals, according to an article on the WA Today website.

Shadow Health Minister Bill Marmion said the government could not go ahead with the medihotel construction if Minister for Health Roger Cook could not release the full business case into the viability and sustainability of the project.

A report that the Victorian Department of Human Services has done on medihotels allegedly shows that they do cost a lot of money to run. Out of the nine medihotels set up by the Department of Health in Victoria, only three are still running.

The 60-room medihotel would provide accommodation support for patients not ready to be discharged but who no longer need the high, expensive level of care of a hospital bed. A hospital bed costs typically between $1800 and $3500 per night, while a bed in the medihotel facility would be between $120 and $200 per night.

Read the article.