The Opposition has accused the South Australian Government of failing in its commitment to deliver improvements to the mental health system.
Opposition Health Spokesman Stephen Wade said nine months ago the Government used its opening speech to Parliament to promise it would create a new independent Mental Health Commission.
But with Parliament opening for another year, he said there was still no sign of action.
“Last time the Parliament opened the Government told us their top priority was to deal with mental health,” Mr Wade said.
“Now nine months later the commitment they made to establish a Mental Health Commission, to have a plan for 2015 going forward none of that has come to fruition.”
Mr Wade said South Australians with mental health issues had been “let down” by the Government.
He said the Government’s new Transforming Health consultation paper, released last week, demonstrated a lack of commitment to mental health.
It outlined suggested savings in the health system across metropolitan Adelaide, but it did not include plans for mental health patients.
“It has no plan to fix a dysfunctional mental health system that is fuelling chronic overcrowding in our emergency departments,” Mr Wade said.
“Until our mental system is working properly, South Australia’s ailing hospital system will not work properly.”
Cut emergency department waiting times ‘first priority’
But Health Minister Jack Snelling said a Mental Health Commission would be created in the current term of Government.
He said his first priority, however, was to make sure mental health patients did not have to wait up to five days to get access to emergency care.
“By the first of January next year there’ll be no mental health patients having to wait in emergency departments for more than a day,” Mr Snelling said.
“At the moment sometimes we can have mental health patients waiting in emergency departments for several days.”
Mr Snelling said the long waiting times were a big concern for the Government, and were contributing to other problems throughout hospital emergency departments.
“It’s no good for the patients, it’s no good for our emergency department staff and it contributes to other problems in our emergency department and it’s an absolute priority of mine to get those patients moving through,” he said.