BID TO ADD 48 MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC BEDS:

Private facility plans a $18m, 48-bed expansion

A GEELONG private health facility is set to almost double its capacity for mental health beds, as demand sees patients travel from across the state to access the service.

Planning application documents submitted to the City of Greater Geelong reveal Healthscope is moving to spend $18 million to add 48 beds, six consulting rooms and 63 parking spaces to the Geelong Clinic in St Albans Park.

The dedicated private mental health hospital currently houses 52 beds, with the planned expansion to more than double the previously publicised addition of 21 private mental health beds, announced by Healthscope in April.

But the group this week said it only expected to go forward with the planned 21-bed expansion in the immediate future.

“Healthscope will invest more than $16 million on redeveloping the Geelong Clinic, delivering 21 additional private mental health beds to the Geelong region by 2021,” Geelong Clinic general manager and director of nursing Janine Haigh said.

“The redevelopment and construction is expected to begin in early 2020 and take about 12 months.

“Our planning submission has also included an option for further redevelopment, which could see the Geelong Clinic become a 100-bed mental health facility, over time.”

Ms Haigh said demand had increased substantially.

“Currently, we treat individuals from as far away as the South Australian border, with some patients travelling from interstate to access our eating disorder and other specialty programs, as well as the local Geelong community,” she said.

The Geelong Clinic is an accredited psychiatric hospital providing programs for a range of conditions such as addiction, anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders and posttraumatic stress.

Healthscope has called for better integration between public and private mental health services.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, it recommended that government recognise and effectively leverage the interdependencies of the public and private systems, and work to collaborate with the private sector through strategic partnerships.

There had been an increase of private health consumers seeking access to mental health care in recent years, the submission said.

“Accompanying this has been an increase in acuity of mental illness as well as in the number and complexity of comorbid conditions, both mental and physical,” it said.

“This has placed a demand on private mental health services and an inevitable shift in the acuity of the inpatient cohort.”

Healthscope believes to provide the required scale and standard of mental health care to all Victorians, a whole-ofsector solution must be looked at, the submission said.

“There is opportunity to create partnerships between public, private and others within the mental health sector.”