By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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MENTAL health patients are languishing for more than eight hours before being treated in Dandenong Hospital’s emergency department, a recent state government report shows.
The Victorian Health Services Performance Report for the December 2011 quarter stated 44 mental health patients waited for admission at the department beyond the eight-hour benchmark – up from 27 patients a year earlier.
A mental health worker at the hospital told the Weekly that the hospital could not keep up with the growing patient demand.
Mental health presentations rose more than 20 per cent during 2011.
“In the past, we got to spend more time with patients – it was a more personal kind of nursing. Now there’s no time,” the worker said. “Mental health needs to be taken more seriously.”
Health and Community Services Union assistant state secretary Paul Healey said staffing levels at the hospital had not risen despite the extra demand. “The thin line of staffing is getting thinner.”
He said there should be more home-visit services for mental health patients to avoid the “loud, bright atmosphere” of an emergency department.
“The trend is more people are getting treated in emergency. It’s not a conducive place to be in and shows the lack of beds available.”
Opposition mental health spokesman Wade Noonan said the hospital was struggling to deal with the numbers of mentally ill patients. “Anyone who works in an emergency department will tell you that patients with a mental illness are the most complex and resource-intensive to assist.
“These figures demonstrate that there are simply not enough acute beds to service the number of mentally ill people in Melbourne’s south-east.”
The performance report was released soon after the state government this month announced 43 extra mental health beds at the hospital.
A spokesman for Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge said the beds would “ease pressure on the system” and reduce admission times.
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