UPDATE: HEALTH Minister Cameron Dick in State Parliament has admitted that staffers at Robina’s mental unit are under pressure as a review is launched into safety and morale.
But Mr Dick during Question Time this morning put the heat on the Opposition for the staffing problem.
He accused the LNP of record cuts to mental health services including $45.4 million by the Newman administration in 2012-13
Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates had earlier tabled an copy of what she described as the “draft external review” into the Coast hospital.
“Will the Minister confirm that, as a knee-jerk reaction to adverse publicity, an external review is being conducted of the mental health unit at Robina Hospital,” she said.
Mr Dick told Parliament: “There is no external review. What the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service has done is engage in a unique and special activity which is talking to its staff.”
A Bulletin report today said a draft copy of the confidential documents shows external consultants would assist in the review.
Mr Dick referred to the Bulletin report which indicated up to 45 staff had left in the past 18 months.
He had declined to provide the numbers to Ms Bates when she had asked previously and referred her to annual health services reports.
But Mr Dick told Parliament: “I’m advised from that September 2014 until the end of January this year 13 people have left the unit out of a fulltime equivalent staff of 163, that is considerably less than 45.
“Of course there has been pressure on staff. I’m glad the hospital and health service is conducting this engagement with staff.”
GOLD Coast mental health services are facing an “imminent” staffing crisis, with Queensland Health calling in consultants to review the situation following several serious incidents in the city’s hospitals.
The review comes in the wake of Gold Coast Bulletin reports exposing the background of numerous “code black” security incidents since last August at both Robina and Gold Coast University hospitals.
Gold Coast Health CEO Ron Calvert yesterday refused to comment, other than to say, “There is no external review”.
This is despite the Gold Coast Bulletin obtaining a copy of a draft confidential document called Project Plan — Optimising Staff Engagement and Patient Safety which clearly states external consultants would be hired to look into the city’s public mental health services.
Health Minister Cameron Dick dodged the issue entirely, referring the Gold Coast Bulletin back to Gold Coast Health.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports, based on statements from whistleblowers, revealed that drug users had walked out of the hospitals to deal in “ice” on nearby streets, dangerous patients were once found in a nearby school and a fire was lit at Robina hospital after a mental health patient entered a seclusion room with a lighter.
Sources suggest the incidents and failure of management to provide support has led to up to 45 mental health services staff leaving in the past 18 months.
Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates in State Parliament has asked Mr Dick to provide numbers but in a reply yesterday he advised “workforce information about the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service is published every year in the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Services Annual Report”.
The confidential draft report obtained by the Gold Coast Bulletin warns the demand for the specialist nursing workforce will soon exceed supply.
The Coast’s health trends, along with an ageing nursing workforce and inability to recruit enough mental health clinicians, means “there is a significant and imminent nursing shortfall”.
“This poses a major risk to the organisation,” the document says.
Gold Coast Health has 150 specialist mental inpatient beds and in the next two years will commission special mother and infant beds in the new Orchard Unit.
Because demand for mental health services is increasing so quickly it will not be long before patients are being sent home because of a shortage of beds.
This was despite Coast patients requiring more intensive treatment because they had more “complex presentations, including serious drug and alcohol intoxication”.
The Health Service would work with the Queensland Nurses Union to identify solutions and obtain an action plan and diagnostics report “by independent expertise”.
Problems identified included staffing levels, inconsistent expectations and practice, increased overtime, along with “negative media publicity”.
Ms Bates after months of highlighting the need for more security and back-up for staff, wrote a lengthy letter to Mr Dick on March 31.
She asked him to ensure there would be an “urgent external investigation”.
Gold Coast Health declined to comment when first approached and Mr Dick responded by saying, “I will provide her with a response in due course”.
Ms Bates yesterday congratulated Gold Coast Health on taking a proactive approach to negative media by starting the draft review.
“While the Minister for Health continues his ‘do nothing, ‘know nothing’ approach to mental health, as a registered nurse, I have done his job for him,” she said.
Ms Bates said the terms of reference for the review followed her requests and included seeking a reduction in workforce injuries, clinical incident reports, along with fewer mental health patient escapes.
Gold Coast Health Executive Director Operations Jane Hancock described the project as “one of many within the health service to continuously improve patient care and support our staff”.
“It takes a constructive approach to identifying staff issues and how we respond. It is being run in partnership with our staff representatives and was initiated in late February,” she said.