By VANESSA VALENZUELA
MENTAL health patients were forced to wait more than eight hours in Sunshine Hospital’s emergency department, new figures have revealed.
Victorian Health Services Performance data for the June 2012 quarter reveal 115 mentally ill patients waited for more than eight hours in the hospital’s emergency department before getting a bed.
Sunshine Hospital recorded the longest waiting times for mental health treatment and admission in Victoria, followed by Werribee’s Mercy Hospital which had 73 patients waiting longer than eight hours and the Royal Melbourne Hospital with 64 patients.
The report revealed a total of 748 mentally ill patients waited for eight hours or more in hospital emergency departments across the state, up by more than 30 per cent than the same time last year.
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Mental Health Wade Noonan said the data revealed the state’s acute mental health services were straining under the pressure of savage funding cuts by the Baillieu government.
“These latest results demonstrate that gaining access to a specialist treatment bed is simply getting harder and harder for Victorians with serious mental illnesses,” Mr Noonan said.
“We know that one in three mentally ill patients are waiting more than eight hours in emergency departments before being admitted to a bed and the situation is getting worse.
“Leaving mentally ill patients languishing in emergency departments is simply not good enough.”
A Melbourne Health spokesperson said people presented for mental health treatment may have physical injuries and substance abused related issues which need to be treated before they can be admitted for psychiatric care.
“In the course of receiving care for physical injuries they may need to be stabilised medically in the emergency department before being transferred to a ward which may take them beyond the target time for admission,” she said.
The spokesperson said a new model of care between specialist mental health services and primary care providers had been developed to reduce the chances of an illness progressing to a stage where emergency care is required.
She said future funding from the State Government, due to come into effect next year, will provide four new mental health beds at Sunshine Hospital in order to meet increased emergency department demands.
The new beds and additional staff will be available early 2013.
