Victorian Nationals: Martin Cameron MP - Patients in limbo, mental health unit in 'dire need' of expansion

The Nationals' Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron, has heightened calls for the Allan Labor Government to fund an expansion of the mental health unit at Latrobe Regional Health (LRH).

Speaking in State Parliament this week, Mr Cameron highlighted damning figures from LRH's most recent annual report which confirm the "dire need" for more mental health beds at the hospital.

"The most recent annual report shows just 38 per cent of mental health patients who presented to the emergency department were offered a bed within the clinically recommended eight hours - less than half the target of 80 per cent," Mr Cameron said.

"Each day, Latrobe Regional Health has on average 8 to 10 patients waiting in the emergency department for urgent mental health care because there are no beds available."

Mr Cameron said staff at LRH were shouldering the burden of a system that is failing those in need.

"If staff can't find a bed in the already stretched metropolitan network, the only option is to discharge an equivalent number of patients from the Flynn Unit, simply to maintain bed flow," he said.

"No healthcare professional should be forced to choose between keeping a patient until they are well or discharging them early to accommodate the next person in distress. No modern mental health system should function this way."

As Gippsland's main acute mental health provider, LRH has just 23 low dependency mental health beds and 6 high dependency beds to service a population close to 300,000. By comparison, Bendigo Health has 35 adult beds as part of an 80-bed mental health unit.

"The number of beds at LRH is woefully inadequate and I'm hearing far too many stories of people in crisis who just can't get the help they need," Mr Cameron said.

"Has the Allan Labor Government not learned anything from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System? The chronic under-funding continues and areas like the Latrobe Valley continue to operate with critically limited adult beds.

"Gippsland residents deserve better. The mental health unit at LRH needs to be expanded as a matter of urgency to allow people in crisis to receive the right care, at the right time, close to home."

Caption: The Nationals' Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron, has heightened calls for the Allan Labor Government to fund an expansion of the mental health unit at Latrobe Regional Health (LRH).