Disappointing: This WA clinic won't be providing abortions, after all.

The Western Australian Government appears to have gone cold on plans to build a separate clinic for birth control and abortions near a new hospital in the city’s east, after the religious healthcare provider awarded the contract refused to offer the services.

The Government was forced to plan for the separate clinic after awarding a $5 billion contract to build and run the Midland Health Campus hospital to St John of God Health Care.

The Catholic healthcare provider refuses to offer pregnancy terminations or contraception services because of its religious values.

The Government has tried in vain for more than a year to secure a private operator to build and run the stand-alone facility.

Health Minister Kim Hames has now revealed the Government is no longer wedded to the idea of a separate clinic.

“We went out for expressions of interest for that site and they were less than what we’d expected, so we’re still working through the plan that we will have, which will be in place when that hospital opens,” he said.

However he would not be drawn on exactly how the Government planned to plug the services gap.

“We’re still doing some work on what happens with those alternative treatments and we’re not ready to make an announcement on that, I’ll let you know when we are,” he said.

Jailed for 40 years because she had a miscarriage.

“What I’m fully committed to is making sure all those patients are cared for. We’re not saying at this stage exactly how we’ll do that.”

Contract with Catholic provider ‘not hindering development’

Dr Hames denied the Government’s contract with St John of God had anything to do with the its failure to get the plan off the ground.

Last July, senior health bureaucrats said the services agreement between the Government and St John of God Health Care had made developing the site difficult.

In the agreement, the health care provider stipulates the clinic must have a separate entrance and car park, which is “away from any hospital entrance or car park”.

It also requires the clinic be separately fenced “with no direct access from the hospital or car park” and “not be connected to the hospital by any shared utility or infrastructure”.

Health officials said those limitations had hindered the process, however Dr Hames said “there were ways around” the agreement.

Four types of contraception you never knew existed.

The Midland Health Campus is due to open in November, giving the Government less than a year to reveal and implement plans to provide services such as abortions to the public.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan remained sceptical.

“They make it up as they go along,” he said.

“The people of the eastern suburbs should have the full range of services that other people have and expect. It’s a massive broken promise to the people of the eastern suburbs, and it’s privatisation gone mad.

“It’s wrong what they’ve done there, and I think the people of Western Australia should be upset this ideological agenda of the Government is now playing out, with important services not being offered at public hospitals.”

This article was originally published by the ABC and was republished here with full permission.