‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’: WA women’s mental health beds to be used for aged care patients

The Cook government’s winter health strategy will see the number of women’s mental health beds at the Cockburn Health facility shrink by one-third while they’re diverted to elderly patients.

The dedicated inpatient mental health facility close to Cockburn Central has 75 beds, and the changes will see 25 of those used for elderly women in the hospital system awaiting care placements.

A manager lamented the loss of the mental health beds in a leaked email from the South Metro Health Service mental health unit to workers on March 11.

“A ministerial decision has been made to change the use of the top floor at Cockburn from women’s mental health to women’s care awaiting placement,” the email read.

“Whilst the loss of 25 available women’s mental health beds is regrettable, 50 dedicated beds remain and the demand/need for them is recognised.”

The letter attributes the decision to the “winter bed strategy”, which forms part of the WA government’s recently announced winter flu strategy.

The Cockburn facility is the largest women’s-only mental health facility in the state.

The state entered into a three-year agreement to lease the facility previously operated by Bethesda after it announced it was shutting down the service.

The decision has concerned senior clinicians and staff in the South Metro Health Service so much that 46 staff put their names to a letter sent to WA Health Director General Shirley Bowen the day before the strategy was publicly announced on February 24, raising concerns about removing so many women’s mental health beds from the system.

In that letter, also leaked to the opposition, the clinicians warned the move would harm bed flow across the system, given women’s mental health beds were at 94 per cent occupancy.

“When this capability contracts, complexity does not diminish; it shifts elsewhere,” the letter read.

The letter also warned women could be at increased risk of gender-based violence in the hospital system.

“The loss of women’s mental health beds at the only women’s only inpatient mental health unit in WA will result in an increased cohort of unwell women being treated in mixed-gender units, with associated impacts on their physical, sexual and emotional safety,” it said.

The $140 million winter health strategy includes 200 additional beds injected into the system through a range of methods, including purchasing private bed capacity.

Opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam said the leaks showed the state was “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

“In a state as wealthy as Western Australia, we should not be pushing one group of vulnerable patients aside to treat another,” she said.

However, in parliament on Tuesday, Health Minister Meredith Hammat said mental health services were not being closed.

“We make no apologies that our focus is on opening every bed that’s available,” she said.

“We want to make sure that the capacity that we have in the system matches the demand.”

Tuesday’s revelations are the second tranche of leaked letters in as many weeks.

Last week, the opposition obtained a leaked letter from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital surgical services medical co-director Michael Levitt to his staff, which revealed internal concerns that elective surgeries would be significantly impacted by the government’s winter flu strategy.

In the letter, Levitt said two operating theatres at the hospital would close from April 7, and would remain shut permanently as a new hospital theatre expansion was built at the site.

Levitt said the entire executive of the hospital “remained deeply disappointed that this strategy disproportionately impacts patients in need of complex surgery”.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health disputed the claims that the theatres would be closed permanently, saying they would only be closed for two weeks in April to replace floor coverings, which was routine maintenance.

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