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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-25 Daily Xml
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Mental Health Services

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:10): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Why has the number of mental health clients waiting over 24 hours in emergency departments in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network gone from 7 per cent in 2017 to 24 per cent in 2019?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:11): Would the honourable member mind repeating the question?

The Hon. T.T. NGO: Why has the number of mental health clients waiting over 24 hours in emergency departments in CALHN gone from 7 per cent in 2017 to 24 per cent in 2019?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I am happy to check the honourable member's figures, but I don't believe those numbers are correct. Long waits were twice as common in 2017 than Labor is willing to admit and more than three times more the year before. My understanding was that the waits were 14 per cent in 2017. Also, Labor is not comparing like with like in relation to the current year. The current year is a year-to-date figure and, as you might have noticed, we are only in September.

In terms of action on mental health, I would remind the house that this government is committed to addressing the long waits in mental health. We have opened the Royal Adelaide Hospital psychiatric intensive care unit, we opened the Lyell McEwin short stay unit and, in the middle of this year, we have opened 10 more forensic mental health beds at Glenside. In that context, the year-to-date figures that Labor refers to—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, could you please restrain yourself because I can't hear the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The forensic mental health beds at Glenside opened in the middle of the year, so obviously the full year impact of those beds is yet to be seen. Also, we have seen a positive response to the implementation of the Court Diversion Program. We are actively reviewing our mental health bed utilisation to make sure that we are making the most of all the resources available to us, in particular the additional Glenside beds.

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