Ministerial Statement

MENTAL HEALTH

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:10): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: As part of the government's mental health reforms under the Stepping Up Report, there have been a number of new services introduced into our mental health system. The priorities identified in the Stepping Up Report are about making services more timely and accessible to consumers in order to reduce demand on acute services.

Once completed, these reforms will deliver an extra 86 beds and places across South Australia's mental health system. In addition, the federal government is investing in a further 159 places, leading to a significant net increase in the availability of mental health care in this state. Part of the reforms include locating mental health services closer to where people live—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will please resume their seats or move from the chamber. It is very difficult to hear.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —which is why the government is building, at a cost of approximately $21 million, a new 20-bed aged acute unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital due to open at the end of 2012. This will result in both aged acute and adult acute mental health services being provided at the QEH.

As was reported in The Advertiser on 18 December last year, SA Health plans to close 26 acute beds in order to open 45 intermediate care beds which will be based at Noarlunga, Glenside and Queenstown. This will result in a net increase of 19 beds in the metropolitan area by December this year as part of the overall additional 86 beds and places at the end of the reform process.

As construction of the new aged acute units is about to commence, it is now necessary to close eight acute mental health beds by 21 September this year, followed by a further two beds in November this year. Two beds at Margaret Tobin Centre closed in 2010 and the remaining bed closures will be from Flinders Medical Centre and Glenside, and they will occur later this year and early next year.

As at 12.30pm today, the inpatient dashboard showed that half of the mental health inpatient units across the metropolitan area were under capacity, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. However, over the transition period, until the 15-bed Queenstown intermediate care centre opens, SA Health has plans for six additional acute beds to be flexed up as required to ensure minimal disruption to consumers. Western Mental Health Services is also implementing other contingency arrangements over this period to manage bed flow in the western suburbs should there be unexpected pressures on our system.

The new 15-bed intermediate care centre will commence operations at Queenstown at the end of October 2011. Stakeholders have been made aware of these planned changes in November last year, May this year and again last week, and I let the house know so that the house, too, can be informed.