The AMA Tasmania Calls for Urgent Action to Save Private Mental Health Beds

“It is ironic that in mental health week we are rapidly progressing towards the closure of The Hobart Clinic inpatient facility, Tasmania is facing the unthinkable, having no private mental health beds available anywhere in the south of the state. 

“This is not simply a private sector issue. If these beds close, patients who cannot be managed in the community will inevitably turn up at the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department. The public system is already working beyond capacity, and it simply cannot absorb this extra demand without compromising what is an already overstretched service. 

Dr Lumsden-Steel added, this closure risks:

• Stranding patients without proper treatment options in the state. Those with the means to afford it may be driven interstate. 
• Pushing acutely unwell people into ED, where they may be forced to wait days for a bed in a total inappropriate environment. 
• Loss of the highly skilled private psychiatrists, nurses and allied health staff, who deliver the care that patients need. These staff may leave the state, and we have already seen psychiatrists leaving Tasmania for this very reason.
• Losing valuable clinical infrastructure, including treatment protocols, electronic records, and specialist programs, which would take months to rebuild.

“Doctors and nurses are ready to work together on solutions, but we need the State Government to act decisively. 

“The AMA has held crisis meetings with the state's private psychiatrists to try to find feasible solutions to keep these beds open in the short and long term. We have clearly articulated these solutions to the government outlining our proposal, but we are yet to hear back.”

The AMA Tasmania is calling for:

1. Immediate "stop gap" funding for the public-in-private beds to maintain a stable system and relieve public pressure for six months to allow the group to bring in a not-for-profit operator to assume operations of the clinic moving forward.
2. Urgent exploration of interim facilities, including options at St Helen’s Hospital in Hobart, where suitable infrastructure is still available.
3. Support for a long-term central private psychiatric hospital, supported by both private psychiatrists and government, with governance and funding models that ensure sustainability.

“This is a moment of crisis but also an opportunity that requires an immediate intervention that can actually deliver a plan for long term solutions.

“The Federal Health Minister needs to answer the phone call from Health Ministers and address the MBS rebates and private health insurance failures across the nation that are resulting in far too many private mental health beds closing.

“Tasmania needs both levels of government to work more than ever together now before it is too late.

“The objective must be to ensure mental health services that have the workforce, infrastructure and stability so Tasmania can keep its mental health workforce, keep patients closer to home, and prevent the public hospital system from collapsing under even greater strain.

“Doing nothing will cost more in money, in resources, and in lives lost.”>>>ENDS