Mental health patients wait up to a day in EDs, new report finds
Patients with mental health conditions are spending seven hours on average in emergency departments – the longest on record – the AMA’s public hospital report card finds.
Our new Public hospital report card: mental health edition shows more patients with mental health-related conditions are arriving at emergency departments by ambulance or police services, and more are arriving in a critical condition needing urgent care.
The latest figures show the length of time spent in ED for patients presenting with mental health-related conditions is seven hours on average with 10 per cent of patients spending more than 23 hours, or almost a day, before receiving a bed.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen and Emergency Specialist Representative Dr Sarah Whitelaw launched the report card at Parliament House on Thursday. Speaking to journalists at the launch Dr McMullen said the report showed the “worst year in terms of the access our patients with mental health needs have to our public hospitals”.
“We've now got unacceptable wait times for these patients where their emergency care has finished, and yet the average wait time for a mental health bed is now seven hours, and that's two hours longer than it was just a couple of years ago. One in ten patients is now waiting 23 hours in a noisy, loud, crowded emergency department waiting for that mental health bed.”
Dr Whitelaw told journalists, “we have a blow-out in emergency department length of stay for these patients”.
“We have increasing acuity and severity of our mental health needs of our population. We cannot wait. We need investment now. These patients and their families deserve better. The Australian community deserves better, and our healthcare system can do better. But we need the resourcing the workforce and the capacity to do so.”
Read the AMA’s Public hospital report card: mental health edition 2024
