RELEASE ROW

PATIENTS SENT TO HOTELS

HOMELESS patients with mental health issues are being discharged into hotels, motels and backpacker hostels at the taxpayers’ expense.

Health Department whistleblowers have told the Labor Opposition they felt under pressure to keep these patients out of overcrowded hospital wards.

But Health Minister Michael Ferguson hit back at the claims — accusing Labor leader Rebecca White of lying.

He said patients only ended up in hotels when they had been discharged — but had nowhere else to go.

Ms White yesterday asked a series of questions in Parliament she said were based on information provided by nurses and social workers who claimed psychotic and suicidal patients had been sent to private accommodation.

“Staffers shared with us concerns that they’ve been asked by the Tasmanian Health Service to identify patients who would be eligible to be transferred to a motel or a hotel instead of remaining in the care of the Tasmanian Health Service,” she said.

“We have very serious concerns about the pressure that staff are facing to free up beds in the hospital and this is putting pressure on them to dis- charge patients to make way for other patients coming through the hospital system. “

Tasmanian Health Service Acting CEO Craig Watson said accommodation had been found for a patient on Tuesday.

“These similar arrangements have occurred for many years, for all types of patients who are ready to leave but don’t have anywhere to go,” he said.

“To be clear, the Tasmanian Health Service does not, and will not, send acutely unwell people to hotels.” Mr Ferguson accused Ms White of misleading Parliament and undermining the clinical judgment of professionals.

“This is about as bad as it gets for Rebecca White, misleading Tasmanians in a desperate attempt to distract away from her health policy failure which is medi-hotels,” he said.

“They were very specific claims that have been very specifically proven false. “

“She has lied to Parliament, she’s lying to journalists, she’s misleading Tasmanians and this is all because Labor have been exposed for their medi-hotels disaster.”

Mr Ferguson said Labor’s cornerstone health policy — of providing non-acute care in “medi-hotels” — was a policy copied from interstate, and which had been a failure.

He confirmed that in some cases health workers found accommodation for people who were being discharged from hospital.