‘The system is broken’: tragedies involving escaped patients expose NSW’s mental health crisis, hospital workers say

Professionals say a lack of resources and an ‘almost insatiable’ demand for services is limiting the ability to pursue long-term care and therapy Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The separate escapes of two mental health patients from the hospital responsible for the most complex psychiatric cases in western Sydney points to an inability to provide longer-term care when “demand is almost insatiable”, medical sources say. A man charged with murder after a stabbing attack in Merrylands on Tuesday had allegedly absconded from Cumberland hospital. In an unrelated matter, it has been alleged that another of the hospital’s patients caused a car crash that killed two people on Saturday. Continue reading...

By Natasha May