Abstract
Introduction
In April 2015, the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) Report recommended that the federal government should transfer AUD$1 billion from acute hospitals to community programmes (NMHC, 2015). This would cut mental health fundingfor acute hospitals by at least 10% from 2017 to 2022, necessitating the closure of recently mainstreamed beds.
The acute hospital funding was to be transferred to a mix of early intervention and recovery programmes including step-up/step-down sub-acute beds (Figure 1). This ‘optimal’ treatment was predicted to improve patient outcomes and decrease demand on downstream services such as acute care. It was also predicted to reduce Medicare benefits schedule (MBS) payments, pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) costs, disability support pensions and carer benefits.
In April 2015, the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) Report recommended that the federal government should transfer AUD$1 billion from acute hospitals to community programmes (NMHC, 2015). This would cut mental health fundingfor acute hospitals by at least 10% from 2017 to 2022, necessitating the closure of recently mainstreamed beds.
The acute hospital funding was to be transferred to a mix of early intervention and recovery programmes including step-up/step-down sub-acute beds (Figure 1). This ‘optimal’ treatment was predicted to improve patient outcomes and decrease demand on downstream services such as acute care. It was also predicted to reduce Medicare benefits schedule (MBS) payments, pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) costs, disability support pensions and carer benefits.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 960-962 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs |
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| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2015 |
Keywords
- National Mental Health Commission
- federal government
- acute hospitals
- community programmes
