Australian Medical Association mental health report card reveals WA patients putting pressure on hospitals

The number of West Australians presenting to emergency departments for mental health treatment is the second highest in the country, a new report has revealed.

The Australian Medical Association’s Public Hospital Report Card on Mental Health, released on Thursday, exposed an onslaught of West Australian residents in mental health crises reliant on hospitals for care.

The report revealed West Australians were presenting to emergency departments with mental health illnesses at the equal second highest rate in the country, signalling a concerning rise in unmet care.

The rate of mental health presentations to public EDs rose to 130 per 10,000 in 2023-24 but still wasn’t as high as 2019-20, which reached more than 140 presentations per 10,000 people.

Among the patients who were eventually admitted to hospital for mental health in 2023-24, 10 per cent waited nearly a full day — 21.5 hours — in the ED.

AMA WA president Kyle Hoath said mental health presentations were one of the issues that led to ambulance ramping and a logjam in hospitals.

He said a long wait in EDs for mental health patients was due to a lack of access to beds.

“The largest reason for that is the access to beds, which is why we are pretty dogged in consistently saying we need more beds, because if there’s someone who is acutely unwell and needs to go to a specialist unit but there is no capacity, where do they go?,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

“That’s been the big issue that we’ve faced is that we don’t have enough capacity to deal with the acute end and so that’s why people wait.

“Once we get to the part where we can help that’s where other services are going to make more of a difference.”

The AMA welcomed the 57 new mental health beds, however, it said the increase has merely kept pace with WA’s population growth.

There were 30 public mental health beds per 100,000 West Australians in 2023-24 — the same as in 2018-2019.

The report card came on the same day Premier Roger Cook announced a $1.5 billion “building hospitals” fund and that his Government is in negotiations to buy St John of God hospital in Mt Lawley.

The redevelopment of Peel Health Campus that was promised in 2020 is also being scrapped, in favour of a brand new hospital with a target completion date of 2029.

A capacity of almost 200 beds is about 65 more than the current hospital.

Mr Hoath welcomed the announcement, which he said would increase beds for mental health patients.

“I’m pretty grateful for today’s announcement because it acknowledges that we do need health infrastructure, we do need beds and we do need the money invested into trying to solve that problem,” he said.

WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat said the Building Hospitals fund would provide further investment in the mental health space.

“Caring for Western Australian’s is our priority and that includes supporting people to access the help they need, when they need it, closer to home,” she said.

“The AMA noted that the number of mental health beds in our health system has increased, and Thursday’s announcement of a $1.5 billion Building Hospitals Fund represents further investment in this critical space.

“On top of our hospital spend, $1.6 billion is being spent on the mental health and wellbeing of West Australians this term.

“From crisis response through to community support, we’re working to offer people various pathways to access mental health support.”

She said the State Government was about to launch a new Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs strategy and had helped deliver the Ambulance Mental Health Co-response service.