NSW takes "immediate action to intervene" at Cumberland Hospital

In the wake of recent incidents, on 25 February the NSW Government appointed an independent team of experts to oversee the management of Cumberland Hospital, with immediate effect.

“Community safety is a top priority for our government and I am concerned that recent incidents at Cumberland Hospital undermine the sense of safety and security people rightly expect in the management of our mental health system,” NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said.

“A formal review into these recent incidents is underway, but because we want it to be a thorough process it will not be completed overnight.

“That’s why we’re taking immediate action to intervene in the management of this facility with a team of experienced health administrators, to ensure the safety of patients, staff and the community.”

Alongside a formal security review into recent incidents, the intervention is aimed at improving safety, strengthening governance and rebuilding public confidence; the team of experts, the government said, “will see that clear monitoring, accountability and escalation frameworks are put in place to ensure oversight and see sustained improvement at Cumberland Hospital”.

Cumberland Hospital will be closing permanently at the end of next year, when the new $540 million purpose-built facility Westmead Integrated Mental Health Complex opens.

“The fact that Cumberland Hospital is closing does not change our responsibility to ensure safe, dignified and high-quality care in the interim,” Jackson said. “Our focus remains firmly on the people receiving care today.

“We don’t want people experiencing mental distress shunted away in small, isolated facilities. The new Westmead Integrated Mental Health Complex will allow us to relocate patients into a modern, integrated network of health facilities.”

On the intervention, Dr Choong-Siew Yong, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) NSW Branch Deputy Chair, said it was “a welcome step” and “We look forward to insights and findings from the expert group”.

Yong also said: “At the same time, we must be clear-eyed that these challenges extend well beyond Cumberland, and require system-level reform. Consumers, carers, clinicians and leaders have long been aware how broken the system is and that it needs the commitment of all parties to make improvements.

“We appreciate Premier Chris Minns has also expressed his concerns about the recent distressing events.

“Psychiatrists remain committed to working with NSW Health to devise and implement solutions that strengthen the state’s mental health system and that look after its most severely unwell patients and the dedicated people who care for them.

“As highlighted in all recent inquiries and the Bondi Inquest, we need sustained investment in community-based mental health and wraparound services and appropriate in-patient units, which will require major expansion in the workforce. And we must ensure people are not being discharged into homelessness and trapped in a revolving door of crisis and readmission.

“The yet to be released NSW Health Mental Health Gap Analysis will provide the guidance as to the extent and nature of investment required.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Katharina13