Cairns Hospital psychiatric unit crisis sparks review of Queensland Mental Health Act

Queensland’s Mental Health Act will be reviewed to examine whether prisoners should be left unguarded in public hospital psychiatric wards, if the Labor government is re-elected.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman. Picture: Brendan Radke

Queensland’s Mental Health Act will be reviewed to examine whether prisoners should be left unguarded in public hospital psychiatric wards if the Labor government is re-elected, after nurses in Cairns reported being repeatedly bashed and threatened with rape and murder.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said extra security guards would be recruited for Cairns Hospital’s psychiatric ­intensive care unit (PICU), and ­assaulted nurses and other health staff would be fast-tracked through the emergency department for treatment, in the wake of an investigation by The Weekend Australian.

Ms Fentiman acknowledged the hospital’s mental health unit was not fit for purpose and was fuelling aggression by some ­patients towards workers. A $70m new mental health unit in the far north Queensland city is nearly three years overdue, and is due to open in January.

“Essentially, we really want to get them into the brand new unit that we’re building. There are a lot of issues with the existing unit (in Cairns). It’s not fit for purpose. I do understand that a number of the nurses have experienced workplace violence, which is completely unacceptable,” she said.

She said in response to the nurses’ pleas, an additional two security guards would be recruited and trained purely to staff the PICU, to ensure there was always a permanent hospital-trained ­officer in the 10-bed ward.

A maximum of two prisoners can be treated in the PICU at any time, but often there are more “forensic” patients, people who have committed a crime but ­cannot stand trial due to their mental health.

Assaulted nurses will also be fast-tracked through the Cairns emergency department for treatment, instead of waiting for hours in line behind members of the public, as happens now.

Ms Fentiman said if re-elected the Miles government would review the Mental Health Act to investigate whether prisoners should be guarded when being treated in public psychiatric wards, as they are in all other hospital units.

Under Queensland law, prison officers have no jurisdiction in the state’s public psychiatric wards, so Corrective Services staff are not required to guard the offenders. It is up to individual hospitals to ­deploy security guards.

“We’re really happy to have a look at that if we’re re-elected … happy to have a look at whether or not there are any changes that could be made under the Mental Health Act,” Ms Fentiman said.

“It’s a tricky space. A mental health unit is not a custodial setting, and there’s a whole lot of ­obligations to the Human Rights Commission and the Health ­Ombudsman.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli this month said he would change the legislation if the LNP won next month’s election, as has been predicted by successive ­public polls. “Our focus is to make sure nurses can go to work and not be punching bags,” he said.

LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates said: “We support those other options, but remain concerned Labor’s approach may not go far enough to keep patients and frontline staff safe in the state’s mental health units.”

Hospital chief executive Leena Singh has previously described to The Weekend Australian the difficulties of recruiting suitable ­security guards to be employed and trained by the hospital. She said she had issued an edict that private security guards – who usually worked as nightclub bouncers and had no mental health or hospital training – would only be used as a last resort after a series of dangerous incidents.

The whistleblower nurses had said their safety complaints were ignored by the hospital, the ­government, and the union for nearly a year.

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