Acute mental health patients at Westmead Hospital waited as long as six days in the emergency department this week, according to a senior clinician who spoke to the ABC, in a backlog doctors described as unprecedented for western Sydney’s busiest public trauma centre.
The ABC confirmed that twelve people with acute mental illness were still in the emergency department after more than forty-eight hours as of Monday afternoon. Seven had crossed the 100-hour mark. The longest wait exceeded 148 hours — more than six days — for a patient being held involuntarily under mental health law while awaiting transfer to Cumberland Hospital, the state’s dedicated psychiatric facility in the same region.
Patients held in a bright, noisy ward
A Westmead doctor who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job told the ABC that each of the long-stay patients was experiencing psychotic illness and was under involuntary orders. None had been cleared to go home; all needed inpatient psychiatric beds that were not available on schedule.
The clinician compared sleeping in the emergency department to being trapped in an airport terminal: lights on, monitors beeping, staff rushing past unrelated cases. “One-hundred and fifty hours is something I have never, ever, ever seen or imagined,” the doctor said. They argued the environment was unsafe for patients, disruptive for others seeking urgent care, and stressful for nurses who are not trained as long-term psychiatric carers.
Minister points to new beds still under construction
NSW Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said extended waits were “well below the experience I want for anyone accessing our mental health system.” She said Westmead and the Western Sydney Local Health District were facing high demand, and that patients awaiting transfer continued to receive clinical oversight in the emergency department.
Jackson highlighted construction of the new Westmead Centre for Mental Health, which she said would deliver a substantial increase in bed numbers once completed. The Western Sydney Local Health District had been contacted for comment on the specific wait times reported by the ABC.
Pressure predates this week’s spike
Westmead already ranked last for timely emergency treatment within its local health district in figures released in September. Only 49.1 percent of patients were treated within clinically recommended windows, with an average wait of 6.5 hours — before the mental health surge described Monday.
Public psychiatrists across New South Wales have warned for more than a year about workloads and pay, and threatened mass resignations last year before the Industrial Relations Commission backed higher wages for specialist doctors. Monday’s account suggests the bed shortage is now showing up as multi-day stays in a department built for hours, not for psychiatric boarding.
Police, ambulance crews, and families still bring acutely unwell patients to Westmead because it is the anchor hospital for a rapidly growing catchment. Until Cumberland or the new centre can absorb the queue, clinicians say the emergency department will keep doubling as an involuntary holding bay — with the longest waits now measured in days, not shifts.