Three deaths at Brisbane hospital mental health unit spark review
By Keira Jenkins
Multiple deaths at a Brisbane hospital’s mental health unit will be independently examined.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman confirmed a review was under way after three people died by suicide at the Prince Charles Hospital unit in the past 16 months.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said governments “had not kept up with funding the services appropriately”.Credit: Brisbane Times
Another two patients harmed themselves at the 60-bed unit during that period, most recently in April.
Fentiman extended her sympathies to the affected families.
“It’s always incredibly distressing to lose a loved one and we’re working very closely with those families as part of this review,” she said.
Fentiman said Queensland Health would be ready to implement recommendations from the review, which was expected to be finished by midyear.
She said there had been a clinical review into the deaths, with improvements already made.
They included bolstering frontline staff and a new short-stay, crisis stabilisation unit set to open at the hospital in September.
“But the hospital and health service has taken the position that they want to look systemically across the model of care,” Fentiman said.
“I welcome this review and Queensland Health will work closely with the hospital and health service to implement any of the recommendations that will be due by the middle of the year.”
Fentiman said there had been an increasing demand for mental health services across Queensland.
“We have come an extraordinarily long way,” she said.
“I think for many decades there was a whole lot of stigma and shame around talking about mental health.
“That meant that governments, I don’t think, kept up with funding the services appropriately but that has really turned around here in Queensland.”
However, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said mental health was in crisis.
“The pressures that have built in society have reached the point where people are falling through the cracks,” he told reporters.
AAP
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