Inquest into patient suicides hears hospital's mental health facility 'overcapacity'
A coronial inquest has begun into three patient suicides within a seven-month period inside the mental health unit of a major Brisbane hospital.
A coroner is investigating the deaths of three patients at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane between May and December 2023. The patients were Barry Ellery, 77, Miranda Meyer, 37, and Kendal Quicke, 31. The coroner is examining whether the mental health unit at the hospital had sufficient capacity to provide adequate care for its patients.
A treating psychiatrist who treated one of the patients testified that mental health unit patients frequently had to be admitted to the thoracic ward due to a lack of beds. While improvements had been made since the suicide cluster, the mental health unit still suffered from bed capacity issues. The coroner will consider if further changes to mental health service delivery should be implemented.
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