Record wait times for mental health patients in SA hospitals
Mental health patients wait an average ten hours in South Australian emergency departments for a bed, while some wait for 31 hours.
The Australian Medical Association’s 2024 report into the performance of public hospitals around the country found South Australian mental health patients were waiting a record 10 hours on average before being assigned a bed.
Wait times are worse in SA than anywhere else in mainland Australia, the AMA said, noting one in ten South Australian mental health patients who were admitted to emergency departments (EDs) waited more than 31 hours before receiving a bed.
South Australia’s average wait time of 10 hours is also two hours longer than the national average. Tasmania was the only state where patients spent longer in EDs.
The findings are from the AMA’s “2024 Public Hospital Report Card: Mental Health Edition”, which uses publicly available information from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the period covering 2022-23.
AMA SA President Dr John Williams described the findings as “extremely concerning”.
“South Australia’s public hospitals are failing some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” he said.
“Many of the patients represented in these figures are highly distressed and in need of urgent care.
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“They should be treated in specialised mental health beds, not kept in overcrowded and stressful emergency departments for such extended periods of time.”
Williams acknowledged that the state’s mental health capacity was increasing, with 45 extra specialised mental health beds added to the system between 2017 and 2023 and the ratio of beds per 10,000 people is now higher than the national average.
However, the AMA said the extra capacity in the system was being counteracted by high patient loads, with the number of mental health-related ED presentations decreasing but higher than the Australian average.
“What that demonstrates is there’s an ongoing unmet need for community mental health services in the state,” he said.
“Boosting capacity at hospitals is only part of the solution. Our governments must also fund alternatives for community care which keeps patients out of hospital.”
Mental Health Coalition of South Australia CEO Geoff Harris told InDaily that the figures were “alarming”, and that there was a simple solution to the problem.
At the time, mental health advocates demanded the government immediately meet the funding shortfall, but the state blamed the NDIS for soaking up too many resources.
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The Unmet Needs Study – commissioned by the former Liberal government – detailed the lack of funding would support services like carer programs, rehabilitation and home-based supports.
Last year, Health Minister Chris Picton said he would work with the federal government as recommended by the report which said both tiers of governments were responsible for funding the services.
Harris today told InDaily that the growing pressure on crisis services was a “direct consequence of not investing in stopping the crisis”.
“The SA Minister has had an Unmet Needs Report for 18 months that shows that 19,000 people with severe mental illnesses need psychosocial support and they’re not getting it,” he said.
“The Malinauskas Government knows what it needs to do, and it’s to support people to avoid going into crisis.
“We need to get some investment outside of the hospitals to stop the flow. The evidence is there for that, it’s just in health and in mental health there’s so much focus on hospital beds but the answer sits somewhere else in community support.”
Picton said the government “knows more South Australians need better access to mental health services”.
“That’s why we are investing in acute and community mental health services by boosting the number of mental health beds by 130, increasing funding for NGO-commissioned mental health services and psychosocial services, and providing additional mental health supports outside of hospitals,” he said.
“When people can access the right care early and are linked with longer-term supports, it helps avoid stressful emergency department visits, which is better for them and also the health system.
“Funding for state-commissioned psychosocial programs has increased by 42 per cent and total operating expenditure on mental health has increased by nine per cent annually since Labor came into Government in 2022. In contrast, under the former Liberal Government between 2018-19 and 2020-21, the funding for NGO-commissioned mental health services was cut by 19.2 per cent.”
The AMA SA President said “programs that work with GPs to address avoidable admissions and readmissions should be prioritised”.
“The growing mental health burden on our hospitals will only become worse unless all levels of government work together to deliver additional resources and real reform,” said Williams.
The news comes as the state government attempts to decrease ramping hours across metropolitan hospitals.
The latest SA Health data showed ramping decreased by more than 40 per cent during the month of September to the lowest level in more than a year.
Ramping across metropolitan hotels fell to 3,106 hours – the biggest ever hours improvement – and a 44 per cent reduction compared to the all-time peak of 5,539 in July.
