Page 2763 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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MR RATTENBURY: Those figures are based on the fact that until this current financial year the adult mental health unit at Canberra Hospital has been funded for 37 beds. There are in fact 40 beds in the unit. Due to high levels of demand, all those beds have been utilised. I think people find it odd that you have capacity over 100 per cent. That is the reason, because the formal figure is 37 beds even though all 40 beds have been used on occasion.
This year’s budget recognises that pressure that has been placed on the adult mental health unit and provides significant additional resources in the order of $7 million to provide more nursing staff and more allied health services staff to ensure that the adult mental health unit operates with a full staffing capacity to reflect the number of people who are seeking medical treatment there.
MRS JONES: Minister, how common is it for patients to wait for 24 hours or more in the ED at Canberra Hospital before a bed becomes available at the mental health unit; where are they held during those 24 hours; and, given the longstanding issues with staffing in the AMHU and the pings that have been issued on that place, how is staffing managed when you are over 100 per cent capacity?
MR RATTENBURY: There were a lot of questions in that question. I am sure I will not get to them all in the course of two minutes. What I can say is that there are occasions on which people do wait longer than 24 hours in the emergency department. This is clearly not a situation that we want to have happen very often; it should not be happening at all. We are seeking to put in place measures to deal with that now. Part of it, as I touched on, is the increased funding in this year’s budget. Canberra Health Services are also looking at issues of flow. Longer term we have funded in this budget initiatives like PACER which are designed to minimise the number of people who have to be taken to the emergency department and to seek to provide an appropriate mental health response. Not every person in a mental health crisis needs to go to the emergency department. In fact some people would be better off—
Mr Coe: Where do they wait for 24 hours?
MR RATTENBURY: Mr Coe, you might learn something if you actually listened to the answer. I am sure this is not your area of expertise—
Mr Coe: You complain about the question but you have not actually answered any of them.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, the minister is answering the question.
MR RATTENBURY: I was asked whether people spend 24 hours or more in the emergency department. I said yes, some do, and I said what we are trying to do to respond to that. I have been very clear that we do not think that that is a situation that should be allowed to continue, so we are seeking to put measures in place. PACER is one of those.
Mr Coe: Don’t you think they deserve an answer?
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