'Not enough' mental health beds in Tasmania after arson attack, union warns

Alleged arson attack at North West Regional Hospital stretches Tasmania's mental health beds In short: An alleged arson attack has shut a 19-bed mental health inpatient unit in Tasmania's north-west. The health union has warned mental health beds across the state are already at capacity and will struggle with the extra patients. What's next? It is still unknown whether the Spence Clinic can be restored and reopened but the state government already has plans for a replacement facility set to open in 2028. The loss of the only dedicated public mental health facility in Tasmania's north-west will place a "huge" strain on a health system already at crisis point, the health union says. The Spencer Clinic, which operates out of Burnie's North West Regional Hospital, suffered extensive damage following an allegedly deliberately lit fire on Saturday night. Police have charged a 28-year-old woman with one count of arson. Robbie Moore, from the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU), told ABC Northern Tasmania the clinic's 19 beds were full at the time of the incident. He said the facility had been operating over capacity for most of the past 12 months. An interim arrangement has led to Spencer Clinic patients being transferred to North West Private Hospital and Launceston General Hospital, with some to be moved to Royal Hobart Hospital later today. "Both of those other two [public] hospitals are at capacity as well so there's not really enough beds to cover this,"Mr Moore said. "Anybody needing services into the future is going to continue to have major issues moving forward." Mr Moore is travelling to Burnie today to meet with frontline workers. He says he is concerned for the staff. "They've been through a very traumatic event on Saturday night," he said. "They're obviously very concerned about how they support the people that would be in the Spencer Clinic at the moment and making sure that everyone is getting all the support and debriefing and things like that need to occur." Mr Moore said there would be scope for more hospital-in-the-home care — a virtual way to look after patients — to help with the lack of beds. "It's obviously very early days, but they [the department] are looking at all the options for being able to support people in all the different ways," he said. "But it also does demonstrate that there was no ability to deal with a situation like this within the mental health area." Mr Moore and the health department both reiterated that anyone in the region suffering a mental health crisis should still present to the North West Regional Hospital emergency department or call Triple Zero in an emergency. Department will try to fast-track new clinic It is expected the Spencer Clinic will be unable to treat patients for an extended period. Tasmanian health secretary Dale Webster told 936 ABC Hobart it was too early to tell if the current clinic would ever reopen. "The fire service still hadn't handed it back to us late yesterday," he said. "So the first opportunity for building surveyors and insurance assessors to get into the unit is likely to be today or tomorrow and that means that we'll need to wait on that advice before we can actually make decisions about which way forward." He said he was glad no-one was injured. "The staff did a fantastic job and emergency services were on site very, very quickly so more damage was prevented,"he said. He said the health department was working on longer-term solutions to keep patients near home. The state government had already announced plans to replace the Spencer Clinic with a $40 million mental health precinct. The new precinct is set to provide places for 22 patients by mid-2028. "I've talked to our infrastructure team yesterday and I'm meeting with them today," Mr Webster said. "We will do everything we can to get that unit online before the mid-2028 current deadline." [Image text:] ONSITORS BEYONL