Tasmanian mental health facilities substandard …

MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS SERIOUSLY CONCERNED ABOUT SUBSTANDARD MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES. “IT’S CHAOS EVERYWHERE”!

HACSU Members have raised significant concerns with the union over the weekend about significant work pressures that they are encountering, which prevents them from providing the best possible care for patients who deserve much better.
There remains a lack of critical mental health beds within the hospital and a complete shambolic system of interim or short term community placements post the hospital setting. Emergency departments are consistently at maximum capacity with patients waiting unreasonable periods for better care in the specialised care environments, they wait in emergency, because there are no beds available in the ward setting.
We are aware of one patient recently being transferred to Launceston from Hobart for a bed, only to be returned to Hobart due to lack of available beds in Launceston when they arrived.
Unfortunately we are seeing patients randomly discharged to provide places for ‘critical care’ before those patients are ready to go to another facility or being sent home. Some areas are discharging without alternate options in the middle of the night anyway, this can’t be acceptable. The links between the state systems and community providers are broken. One worker described the current situation as “Its chaos everywhere”.
HACSU has significant concerns about the lack of strategic policy and facilities in this space, with patients being removed from beds and forced into waiting areas pending discharge, without adequate care or regard.
Risk assessments are not being completed for work environments or for patients. Staff are not being consulted about the constant changes as senior bureaucrats make decisions in crisis mode without involving front line staff.
Quotes attributable to Mr Robbie Moore, Assistant State Secretary of HACSU
“The bureaucrats are making short term ad-hoc decisions in crisis mode, without consulting the experts, their staff, and they are making incorrect decisions.”
“This decision making on the run process is impacting on the front line staff and make for worse outcomes for patients from a clinical perspective.”
“There appears to be no regard for Coroner Coopers report from November last year, he warned of the impact of removing beds from the system and was dismissed by bureaucrats and the Health Minister as scare mongering.”
“The Tasmanian health system is in crisis, it needs urgent resources, it needs a total re-think in terms of crisis management; the government can’t rely on rhetoric about fixing someone else’s mess, or it takes time. The time for decisive action is now, there is only one solution beds, beds and beds.”
“We are aware of patients are being discharged to promote ‘bed flow’, not because they are well enough to go home, what an appalling mess this is”.
HACSU ASSISTANT STATE SECRETARY, ROBBIE MOORE