A target which was set to reduce emergency department waiting times for mental health patients by January 1 will not be met by the South Australian Government.
State Health Minister Jack Snelling last year set a target that by the onset of 2016 no mental health patient would spend more than 24 hours in a hospital emergency department (ED).
SA Health Department figures show the number of patients waiting in EDs for longer than 24 hours has reduced from nine per day 14 months ago to two per day.
Mr Snelling said the latest figures were promising but acknowledged the situation remained far from ideal.
“As far as I’m concerned, even one mental health patient waiting for longer than 24 hours in an emergency department is not good enough,” he said.
“It’s not an appropriate place for a mental health patient to be waiting for admission to a proper mental health unit.”
The length of the average wait also dropped from 15.7 hours in October 2014 to 7.8 hours in November 2015.
Mr Snelling said he was determined to meet the target and reduce waiting times further through an additional 21 mental health beds.
“We haven’t been able to get those extra beds that we’ve needed online as quickly as we’d hoped, but I’m confident that with these beds in the early new year, that’ll help us,” Mr Snelling said.