Pakenham
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PLANE CRASH BRANCHING OUT Four lucky to survive
Bank deserts town
PAGE 5 Wednesday, 23 March 2016
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■ Psychosis patients rub shoulders with kids and the public
Waiting r doom By ANEEKA SIMONIS AGGRESSIVE psychosis patients forced to wait side by side with the general public in an outer south-east hospital emergency department endanger the safety of patients including children, according to an alarmed senior emergency health worker. Drug-addled or mentally unwell patients exhibiting signs of aggression, violence or psychosis have no isolated, secure place to wait when admitted to Casey Hospital’s emergency department. Instead, these patients are lumped together in close quarters with non-psychosis child and adult patients – some-
times growing increasingly agitated during their long wait to be seen by hospital staff. An emergency worker, who did not want to be identified, described the hospital layout as “unsafe”, recounting cases where intimidated parents had been forced take their sick kids from the hospital before being seen due to the threat of verbal or physical attack by psychosis patients. “It’s unsafe for the general public and it’s unfair for mental health patients,” the emergency worker said. “They may be up three to four hours to be seen. That only adds to their agitation. “It places staff and patients
at risk if there is no secure location for these people to be assessed.“ Poor facilities and security at Casey Hospital threaten serious safety consequences, according to the off-the-record source who drew comparisons with the nearby Dandenong Hospital. The whistle-blower criticised the lack of standardisation between the hospital’s security management practices, also revealing the constraints placed on police tasked with protecting the public and staff from volatile patients at Casey Hospital’s emergency department.
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The safety of our patients and our staff is a priority…
Fun and games at Pakenham Show PAGES 22-26