RAH, QEH and FMC spend $20m on security guards for mental health patients

About $20m spent on security guards at just three of SA’s hospitals is proof the mental health system is collapsing, an MP says, as new data is revealed.

South Australian taxpayers are forking out $100,000 a week for security officers who are guarding mental health patients in emergency departments at three major public hospitals, new data shows.

Advocates say the money would be better spent on community-based support, which would help keep patients away from emergency departments altogether.

Information released to SA-Best under Freedom of Information laws showed almost $13m was spent at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) between July 2019 and March this year, and more than $4.7m was spent at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) over the same period.

More than $2.4m was spent on guarding patients at the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department between 2018 and February this year – but the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network could not say how much of that was spent on patients experiencing mental health issues.

The total between the three hospitals reached $20m – or, on average, about $100,000 per week.

SA-Best MLC Connie Bonaros said the bill was proof the state’s mental health system was “on the brink of collapse”.

SA-Best MLC Connie Bonaros. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

SASMOA chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland. Picture: Matt Loxton

“It should have never got to this point. That is $20m of taxpayers money that could be better invested into mental health support services if the needs of people suffering mental health problems were being appropriately addressed,” she said.

Ms Bonaros said the figure was “just the tip of the iceberg” because it does not include expenditure on security for wards or in regional hospitals.

She said the cost should spur the state government to act on the Unmet Needs study, which was commissioned by the chief psychiatrist and released in July.

The study found there are about 19,000 South Australians with complex and severe mental illnesses who are living in the community without the support they require.

It revealed it would cost about $125m per annum to fund the necessary services – which are the responsibility of both the state and federal tiers of government.

But Mental Health Coalition of SA executive director Geoff Harris said the government should rethink how it is spending money currently devoted to guarding patients.

“If the government spent (the money) in community based mental health support most of these people would not need to be there,” he said.

SA Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said the current approach exacerbates illness and creates enormous distress for frontline health workers in emergency departments.

“It makes staff incredibly sad and angry for their patients,” she said.

“A proactive approach to funding suitable, dedicated treatment areas and mental health beds and supports in the first place could in all likelihood avoid a large part of these escalating annual security costs, and result in better outcomes for all patients attending EDs, plus their families and our health staff.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said the government was committed to “investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a generational increase in mental health”.

That includes delivery of 72 extra mental health rehabilitation beds, which he said would go a long way towards freeing up acute beds and reducing emergency department waiting times.

“The Unmet Needs Report will help to guide SA Health and the federal government in assessing the future of psychosocial service planning in South Australia as we recover from the Liberal Government cuts to these services,” he said.

A “targeted and flexible” approach to security at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network has cut costs.

It has seen the 2022-23 total spend for security for acute and urgent care programs at the RAH reduce by 35 per cent and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by 30 per cent when compared to 2021-22.

Originally published as RAH, QEH and FMC spend $20m on security guards for mental health patients