Patients with severe mental illness are having to sleep on the floor or couches inside Queensland's largest hospital due to chronic bed shortages, with some left waiting days.
Years of frustration over the dire state of the RBWH's mental health service has prompted clinical nurse Nat Karmichael to come forward as a whistleblowerMr Karmichael said he had raised concerns with management at the mental health unit at the RBWH in emails over the past few years
The 65-year-old has worked in the Psychiatric Emergency Centre at the hospital for 13 years and has been a registered nurse in the mental health sector since 2004. But Mr Karmichael said PEC — which has four beds — had lost its purpose and for years had become a de facto holding bay for mental health patients who were being left in limbo."My concern is that it's not safe for the patients and it's not fair for the patients.
There were 65,405 mental health presentations to emergency departments across Queensland in 2022-2023. Mr Karmichael said he had raised concerns with management at the mental health unit at the RBWH in emails over the past few years. "The Prince Charles, Princess Alexandra Hospital, you name the hospital, the same problem in the lack of mental health beds is clearly apparent.He said he wanted to speak out to give mental health patients a voice, and it was clear that more beds and an urgent independent review of the RBWH's mental health services was needed."They're either homeless, with a lot of females suffering domestic violence, some of them live in boarding houses, some have drug and alcohol issues.
"These arrangements can include a bed in another ward with access to mental health specialists, while a mental health inpatient ward bed becomes available." The statement said inpatient treatment was only part of the work it does, with a large focus on early intervention, emergency and admission avoidance and treatment in the community and home.Professor Brett Emmerson was the executive director for Metro North Mental Health from 2009 until last year.Professor Brett Emmerson is the chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Queensland and is a former executive director for Metro North Mental Health.
He is currently the Queensland chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. The state has funded 69 new mental health beds in addition to the existing 1,658 currently in the state.Minister for Health, Mental Health and Ambulance Services Shannon Fentiman said she was concerned about the rise in mental health presentations in emergency departments.
"The current mental health plan will probably deliver 126 beds over the next four years, but that still leaves a gap of about 300 to 400 beds that are needed now," he said."If you want to have a proper functioning mental health service in Queensland we're going to need the optimum number of beds as planned which is probably another 400.""And we need a big injection of funds into the non-government sector," he added.
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