‘How many more kids need to die?’ Father’s plea as health pledge stalls

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‘How many more kids need to die?’ Father’s plea as health pledge stalls

By Laura Banks
Updated

More than a year after being handed $7.5 million to establish a specialised mental health unit for children and adolescents, there are no beds for children in crisis at Northern Beaches Hospital as the number of youth suicides keeps rising.

Allocated as part of an $11.4 million state government package to improve mental health services for young people on the northern beaches, the funding was supposed to help create four dedicated acute paediatric specialist mental health beds.

Andrew Gill’s son Joshua was just 14 when he died after systemic failures meant he could not access the mental health help he needed. This tragedy prompted the funding announcement, but the delays in the roll-out, Gill said, have only seen more children tragically take their own lives.

Andrew Gill’s son Josh died under horrific circumstances two years ago after failures, his father says, by the Northern Beaches Hospital to treat his mental health issues. The state government offered funding for specialised beds after his death, but more than a year on they are yet to be built.

Andrew Gill’s son Josh died under horrific circumstances two years ago after failures, his father says, by the Northern Beaches Hospital to treat his mental health issues. The state government offered funding for specialised beds after his death, but more than a year on they are yet to be built.Credit: Steven Siewert

“If these beds had been there for Josh, he would still be alive. There have been a couple of kids die on the beaches in the last few weeks because there are no services available to them,” Gill said.

“The kids go to the emergency department, and they keep them there, or they put them in with the adults [in the mental health ward] and that comes with its own issues. I have asked the HCCC to put a warning on their website that if your child is experiencing a mental health crisis do not take them to Northern Beaches Hospital because they won’t be helped. How many more kids need to die?”

The hospital operates under a public-private arrangement and has previously come under fire from doctors who pleaded with the state government to abandon the model as they believed it is fundamentally flawed. Critics say it encourages cost-cutting and secrecy. The facility opened in October 2018 and has been hit by chronic staff shortages, poor supply of drugs and even abnormal test results, which led to a patient having the wrong side of his colon removed.

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Federal member for Mackellar Dr Sophie Scamps, a general practitioner, said there was a youth suicide crisis on the northern beaches and children were dying preventable deaths as a result of the delays.

“The community is desperate for these adolescent mental health beds and the hospital is not delivering; they’re sitting on their hands,” Scamps said.

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“From what I can see they’re refusing to create the space in the hospital for the beds. The CEO [Andrew Newton] is refusing to communicate about these beds. When I try and try and try to ask what’s happening, I’m fobbed off. I’ve never come across such unprofessionalism and arrogance in my entire professional career.”

Scamps said the closest specialist facility that offered beds for mental health paediatric patients was in Hornsby but for children in a crisis, that was too far away.

“If the adolescent mental health beds aren’t in place by Christmas this year, then Andrew Newton, the CEO should resign,” Scamps told the Herald.

A spokesperson for Healthscope, which operates the hospital, said it would not comment on the funding roll-out delays and offered no timeline as to when the beds would be built. Newton offered no comment either, instead sending the Herald’s questions to Northern Sydney Local Health District.

A spokesperson for the NSLHD said that, while no specialised unit had been built, and a timeline could not be guaranteed, there was now one full-time youth psychiatrist at the hospital, where there had previously been none.

Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said on Monday the situation was “concerning” and the state government needed to be doing “everything we can to provide accessible support for those experiencing a mental health crisis”.

“We can’t have vulnerable people in a position of not knowing where to turn and what help is available to them,” Jackson said.

“We will be monitoring this situation closely to ensure the delivery of more beds for critical mental health support for young people at Northern Beaches Hospital is delivered as quickly as it can be.”

If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

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