Mental Health Services

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about mental health services in the south.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: At today's huge rally by ambulance officers and firefighters on the steps of Parliament House, it was revealed that shortages of paramedics and ambulances are causing havoc and distress in our community. SA Ambulance union's Phil Palmer said that eight deaths could be linked to a failure by ambulances to attend on time because they had been held up by ramping and staff shortages. Also, call-back numbers have jumped to unmanageable levels, causing stressed staff to become worried about patient outcomes.

It was also revealed that there have been instances where ambulances have not been able to attend callouts involving mental health patients in Adelaide's south. Furthermore, the MFS chief officer, Michael Morgan, also demanded that firefighters who attended not wear MFS-issued clothing and helmets. Not surprisingly, they took no notice, so none appeared naked. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can he confirm that SA Police have had to be called to deal with mental health patients and take them to hospitals for treatment because of the ambulance ramping crisis and shortage of ambulances?

2. Is it appropriate to have police taken away from their core duty of fighting crime to attend health matters, and what does he intend to do to fix the huge backlog of call-backs?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for his question. It is longstanding practice that police, as part of their emergency response, may from time to time need to engage with mental health services. It is really important that we make sure that that is done in an efficient and effective way, not only in terms of the provision of police resources but also in responding to the mental health needs of the clients.

A very recent example of that engagement is the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre that has been established in the eastern part of Adelaide. In fact, there are only three ways that you can get to the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre: either a referral through the mental health triage service; secondly, taken there by an ambulance; or, thirdly, taken there by police. The feedback I am getting is that the service is meeting a strong need.

All parties in the emergency services sector (I include ambulances as part of that in that statement) are acutely aware of the importance of getting the balance right. In that context, a revision is currently underway of the memorandum of understanding between emergency services related to mental health. The work is being done collaboratively by mental health, SAAS, SAPOL, the emergency departments in our hospitals and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

We will continue to work with police to make sure that we do partner with them in an appropriate response. In terms of the point the honourable member is making that ambulance ramping inhibits the capacity of the Ambulance Service to respond to community calls, I completely agree with that, that is why this government is determined to eliminate ambulance ramping.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Pangallo has a supplementary.