Specialist roles slashed amid drug concerns at Victoria’s mental health facility for prisoners

That email sent last Thursday and received from: AgeHe said the job losses had “significantly impacted our staff capacity” and that these “challenges” had been exacerbated by delays in the start of work for two other registrars.

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Forensicare also heralded the redundancy of five other specialists in its change impact statement – an alcohol and other drugs nurse, an autism spectrum nurse, primary care nurse, lead speech pathologist and a senior occupational therapist – and recommended reducing the hospital’s use of external drug and alcohol specialists.

A Forensicare spokesman said it had consulted its workforce on the changes and proposed “improving the leadership structure of Thomas Embling Hospital”.

They declined to detail the number of patients violating the drug testing program or daily release conditions, citing the risk of compromising safety protocols.

“We have robust processes in place to reduce the risk of contraband entering the hospital and we continually monitor our practices,” the spokesman said.

The staff explained, Anonymous to protect their employment, drug use is a recurring problem both within the facility and for patients who are allowed to leave on the day of release.

“Patients attacked the staff… patients got completely beaten up for coming back with hard drugs,” said one Thomas Embling staff member.

“We also have patients who do not have permission and whose ice test is positive. They are in the hospital.”

The number of occupational violence claims WorkCover accepts for Forensic Care staff has almost doubled in three years, with almost 2 per cent of workers injured each year.

The severity of injuries also increased; Cases requiring staff to take time off work have almost tripled since 2021-2022.

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Forensic medicine is badly inadequate to meet its criteria due to staff shortages. According to its most recent annual report, only 12 percent of male security patients were admitted to Thomas Embling within seven days; this rate was well below the 80 percent target. Less than a third of male security patients were discharged from Thomas Embling to a correctional facility within 21 days; this was again well below the 80 percent benchmark.

At Thomas Embling, patients with custody orders have an average wait time of 371 days to obtain a bed. These patients, who have been ordered by the courts to be detained at Thomas Embling on the grounds that they are permanently unfit for defense or not guilty because they are mentally disabled, are kept in prison until a bed becomes available in the hospital.

While jobs are being cut, the government is expanding the facility to add 82 beds to meet the Royal Commission’s key recommendation into the Victorian Mental Health System.

Health and Community Services Alliance secretary Paul Healey said cutting critical roles was jeopardizing the quality and continuity of care for some of Victoria’s most vulnerable patients.

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“Cutting specialist roles while pushing staff into high-risk environments such as Thomas Embling Hospital is reckless and dangerous. Safe care is impossible without a safe workforce, and safety is currently being sacrificed for savings,” Healey said.

Australian Medical Association Victoria president Dr. Simon Judkins said Thomas Embling’s staff were already overburdened and potential patients were languishing inconveniently in prisons.

Judkins said it was a vital facility and by cutting off its resources, “prisons would be filled with people who don’t need to be there but have nowhere else to go.”

royal commission He said people in the criminal justice system often don’t get the support they need, and prisons have become a last resort for mental health.

Health services across Victoria must find efficiencies.

A government spokesman said the Department of Health was working with providers to ensure the changes were in line with policy and that frontline services were prioritized.

“Any proposed workforce changes in Forensic Care must not compromise clinical care, staff safety or the delivery of essential forensic mental health services.”

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