During her visit to Esperance yesterday, Mental Health Minister Helen Morton suggested reopening the two-bed mental ward at Esperance District Hospital would help address accommodation shortages.

The facility has been closed for the past decade.

“I will be looking to whether we can reinstate that in a way that I’ve seen working really well recently in Narrogin,” Ms Morton said.

“I know that it works well and how valuable it is to the community so I want to go and see why it’s not happening here.”

Eyre MLA Graham Jacobs said it was important to look at re-establishing a prescribed area in the hospital, away from general ward patients, to help provide short-term stays as part of the overall accommodation solution.