Cairns Hospital mental health unit receives ‘additional security’ as review outstanding
Outstanding information on “procedures” at Cairns Hospital’s mental health unit will help determine additional safety needs for staff, after the recent allocation of static security.
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Additional security will be stationed within Cairns Hospital’s troubled mental health unit and more safety protocols are likely to be introduced pending further review, a Far North MP says.
Member for Cairns Michael Healy said a recent meeting with mental health unit nurses, union representatives and Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh resulted in some “positive outcomes” as frontline staff and their patients await the completion of a new facility.
The discussions come off the back of multiple reports of alleged assaults against nurses by patients and alleged inappropriate behaviour by prisoners, who have shared the facility with young children.
“There are some broader questions that need to be asked about procedures and how we operate, so I am waiting to get information back from the hospital,” Mr Healy said.
He was asked to expand on details of the additional security allocation, as well as questions around internal designs of the new $70m mental health unit’s nursing stations and safety features, and queried on any plans to keep children and prisoners apart – issues previously raised by frontline staff.
His office directed the “operational” questions to CHHHS.
In a statement Ms Singh said the health service was “making every effort to address our staff’s concerns” following the late September meeting.
“We have invested in significant staff training for both nursing staff and security staff to help provide them with additional skills in de-escalation,” Ms Singh said.
“We have had a constant static security presence in (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit) since August 19 and have committed to continued security presence in this unit.”
Ms Singh said the Cairns Hospital, during any 24-hour period, had 24 security officers on duty throughout the service, including a combination of patrolling officers, CCTV monitors, and supervisors.
However in September, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said she’d received “clinical” advice suggesting having correctional officers onsite would impact the treatment of other non-custodial patients, while noting if re-elected, Labor would review the Mental Health Act to investigate whether prisoners should be guarded at psychiatric wards.
Ms Singh had previously stated the new 53-bed mental health unit, expected to be completed “early next year” would help alleviate staff safety concerns with its design features of “modern spaces” and “outdoor secure areas” making patients feel less locked up, and theoretically lowering tension and aggression.
Further, she said she would review the design of the now-overdue facility, six months after the move-in date.
When asked if it would make more sense to review the safety features and design prior to completion of the facility, and queried about plans to separate children and prisoners in the new unit, Ms Singh reiterated her previous stance of “undertaking a review of the new building six months after fully occupying it, to assess whether the design principles have improved safety for our staff and patients.”
“The new mental health building was designed six years ago, based on clinical and consumer engagement,” she said.
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