THE Cook government will take over a 75-bed mental health clinic in Cockburn after the private operator pulled out last month saying it wasn’t viable.

Bethesda Health Care closed the clinic next to Cockburn Arc a year after opening, saying it wasn’t getting enough reimbursement from health insurance companies and was struggling to find psychiatrists to take on in-patients.

But premier Roger Cook, who was health minister when ground  was broken on the site in 2022, announced on Monday it had negotiated a three-year lease on the clinic, which would be run by the South Metropolitan Health Service.

The government will stick with Bethesda’s ground-breaking model which offered women’s-only areas, while saying it expects to keep outpatient psychiatric services tailored to veterans and first responders. It says it offered all staff from Bethesda the chance to stay on.

Cockburn MLA David Scaife said the clinic had first-class facilities.

“This 75-bed facility is an important asset to Cockburn and this lease will ensure it will continued to operate, under a new model, for the benefit of our community,” Mr Scaife said.