MANY western suburbs mental health patients are still waiting more than eight hours to receive care at Sunshine Hospital.
Victorian Health Services performance data for the March quarter revealed 96 mental health patients had had to wait eight hours or more before being admitted.
Sunshine Hospital, responsible for a catchment including Hobsons Bay, had the longest waiting times for mental health treatment and hospital admissions in Victoria. Werribee Mercy Hospital was second-worst, with 72 patients waiting longer than eight hours; then followed the Northern Hospital, Epping, with 68 patients.
The Weekly reported in May that a dozen mental health patients a week were waiting more than eight hours for emergency department admission to Sunshine Hospital. Data for the December 2011 quarter showed 141 mental health patients waited eight or more hours.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said the figures showed mental health patients in the west had been left “languishing”. “Sunshine Hospital is finding it increasingly difficult to assist people who require treatment for a mental illness.”
A Melbourne Health spokeswoman said
all mental health patients were triaged and treated according to the severity of their condition. The outer west had experienced a 15per cent population boost, raising demand for health services.
“The region has a relatively high social disadvantage that’s reflected in poor health status.”
She said that since July 2011, more than 2000 people had attended Sunshine Hospital because of mental health issues or drug use, with more than 550 requiring a mental health admission. Extra state funding was expected at the beginning of next year, enabling four mental health beds and extra staff at Sunshine, she said. A new model of care had also been developed between specialist mental health services and primary care providers to reduce the chances of mental illness progressing to a stage where emergency care was needed.
– Melissa Cunningham
