Mental health workshop hears of ‘no urgency’ from SA Health to fix system

An ED patient was left waiting 94 hours for a mental health bed, it’s been revealed, as a pivotal meeting sat to figure out how to fix the system.

More acute mental health beds and unclogging them of NDIS patients is one of a dozen actions needing urgent state government attention, a pivotal “stocktake” workshop in Adelaide has recommended.

The workshop was held on Wednesday as one mental health patient had, as of 12pm, been waiting 94 hours in the Emergency Department (ED) of the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) for a mental health bed, the Advertiser understands.

Emergency medicine experts say mental health patients should not be waiting in EDs for more than 12 hours.

The workshop – to kickstart an urgent overhaul of SA’s struggling mental health system post-COVID- involved more than 60 consumer, carer and clinical stakeholders at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

It was set up by SA Health Minister Stephen Wade to understand and act on escalating calls for immediate government action made by SA Health whistleblower John Mendoza, backed by a coalition of medical peak body and union heavyweights, as reported by the Advertiser.

AMA SA vice-president Dr Michelle Atchison, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA Branch CEO Elizabeth Dabars and SA Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network executive director Ellie Hodges, – SA Branch chairman of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Dr Paul Furst, SA Salaried Medical Officers Association President Dr David Pope and Australasian Council of Emergency Medicine SA faculty chair Dr Mark Morphett

Mental health advocates last night said more than 70 areas of discussion at the workshop resulted in a widespread focus of 10 “pronto” actions delivered to Mr Wade, which included:

ADDING eight extra Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) beds at Glenside for country patients and RAH overflow;

FREEING up 10 PICU beds at Glenside by relocating the Tarnanthi Forensic Disability unit possibly to the old Oakden site or the Hampstead Campus;

RECRUITING, upskilling and developing the mental health workforce, particularly nurses;

A DEDICATED strategy to ensure mental health patients ready for discharge are not held up by NDIS plan delays and that NDIS plans better meet complex mental health needs;

DOUBLING the new Urgent Medical Health Centre’s operating hours to 24 hours a day.

As the workshop prepared to break for lunch, a public ED dashboard showed 29 mental health patients had been waiting more than eight hours for a bed in EDs across metropolitan Adelaide hospitals.

It is understood one of them had been waiting 94 hours and at least two for a day at the RAH ED.

SA Health said it could not comment on individual patient case details and that some ED patients required very specific beds. “We do our best to ensure they receive the care they need – at times patients do experience a longer than optimal wait,” said a spokeswoman.

SA Minister Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade

Mr Wade acknowledged mental health patient National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) package delays were a “very significant concern” expected to dominate a meeting of Australian health ministers in Melbourne on Thursday.

“I’m delighted that we (had) this workshop as a bit of a stocktake and a real opportunity to identify short term demand pressures and how we deal with them and continue to build for the future,” said Mr Wade.

Associate Professor Mendoza was scathing of the workshop’s process as a missed opportunity, saying it was “utterly hopeless in terms of actions, commitments; and very disappointing”.

“Clinicians will come into work today and continue to be faced with forensic patients in mental health beds and patients in ED’s for four days or more because this workshop has provided them with no immediate commitments – demoralising them further,” he said.

The Australian Medical Association is now calling for further discussion with Mr Wade on the mental health crisis brought to light by Prof Mendoza.

Executive director of LELAN Ellie Hodges, Dr Patrick Clarke, Adjunct Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars, John Mendoza, Dr Mark Morphett and Bernadette Mulholland. Picture: Mark Brake

Dr Paul Furst, SA Branch chairman of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said the if the ED wait times at the RAH for mental health beds was not “addressed as a matter of urgency then the workshop will have been a complete waste of time”.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said the workshop would be a waste of time if the government did not urgently address a worsening mental health crisis.

“The first thing that should be done is reverse the Liberals’ $5 million cut to mental health services at central hospitals, then deliver measures such as those that have been outlined by the coalition of experts,” he said.

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists SA branch chairman Dr Paul Furst

National Mental Health Commission CEO Christine Morgan said the workshop had been a “collaborative effort” focused on identifying what was and was not working within the mental health system.

“There was a focus on how we can use our collective wisdom and expertise to solve the problems moving forward,” Ms Morgan said.