The North West Health and Hospital says Mount Isa hospital has not failed national accreditation from Australian Council of Healthcare Standards.
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In a one-line statement to the North West Star, the NWHHS said the matter was still in assessment phase.
The statement came after a source, who wished not to be identified, said the Hospital failed national Accreditation late last year, and a recent Australian Council of Hospital Standards review meeting earlier this month gave rise to yet further safety concerns.
The source told the North West Star the ACHS cited systemic failures that the Hospital administration has failed to address.
"They have failed to address these systems matters despite years of concerned emails and discussions about safety issues from their most senior medical consultants," the source said.
"The ACHS Report was in no way critical of the clinical care of Mental Health patients or other patients at the Hospital, but mainly about the failure of the Hospitals Administration to deal with the organisational problems that were repeatedly brought to their attention by senior clinicians."
In a part of the draft report obtained by the North West Star, the ACHS said NWHHS does not have an inpatient mental health facility.
"Patients who require admission for treatment of a mental health issue are transferred to Townsville Hospital predominantly, as the tertiary referral hospital for the NWHHS. Patients are transferred under deep sedation and are intubated for the journey."
It estimated it took 6.5 days to conduct a transfer.
It found that in March 2019, a 20-year-old Aboriginal mental health patient, with a known history of self-harm, and admitted for concerns relating to self-harm, absconded from the Mount Isa Emergency Department, whilst awaiting transfer.
"At the time of the incident, he had been awaiting transfer for three days. Several hours after absconding, he was found to be deceased by hanging," the report said.
The report also found assessors identified an urgent need for specialist mental health education to be provided to staff working within the Emergency Department, especially in relation to providing ongoing care and management.
The report found NWHHS was responsive to the risks for Mental Health patients experiencing delayed transfer to specialist services. "Unfortunately, these responses and mitigations have been unsuccessful in resolving these risks, as they appear to arise from state-wide, systemic issues".
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