2 days ago
Psychiatric patients don't know where to turn as Toowong Private Hospital gets set to close its doors
Cain Chambers knows he would not be alive if it wasn't for Toowong Private Hospital.
Warning: This story contains details that may trouble some readers.
The Australian Army veteran of 13 years was admitted there after his wife found him passed out on their front lawn, in 2022. and rushed him to hospital.
Mr Chambers loved serving in the army but says he suffered from PTSD as the result of an incident that occurred during a training exercise where he witnessed a young man die in a car accident.
"I was having a lot of nightmares ... I started drinking a lot, and it kept getting progressively worse," Mr Chambers told 7.30.
The low point was that day in 2022 and he said he could not remember what had occurred the previous night.
He was treated as an inpatient at Toowong Private for several months, before participating in the hospital's nation-leading trauma recovery program for veterans and first responders, which runs as an outpatient program over 12 weeks.
"It's a place that any veteran with mental health needs should be going. The support they give is excellent."
As one of three major private psychiatric hospitals in central Brisbane, the family-owned facility has been a lifeline in Brisbane's inner-west for almost 50 years, treating thousands of patients.
At the start of this year Mr Chambers relapsed and immediately reached out for help. He was admitted back into Toowong's care.
But like thousands of others who have relied on Toowong, Mr Chambers will no longer have the hospital's innovative care to fall back on, after the facility descended into an untenable financial position.
When the owners — The Kratzmann family — failed to find a buyer, the hospital entered voluntary administration last month.
After an "urgent review" they determined the hospital would be forced to close.
The hospital's financial woes were driven by the rising cost of care, the shortfall in what health insurance funds will cover for hospital care, and the decline in hospital-based psychiatrists.
"There's nowhere else that's the same, that I can get to."
Toowong Private Hospital is a 58-bed facility that treats about 3,000 patients every year, with 154 employed staff.
It's a pioneer in psychiatric treatment and the only private psychiatric hospital in Queensland to offer intravenous ketamine for inpatients with severe depression.
Kerrie Czernia is one of the last inpatients at the facility. Having battled a major depressive issue for over 30 years, she believes she finally found the right treatment plan at Toowong — intravenous ketamine — but the hospital will close before she finishes her treatment.
"There is that worry, there's that anxiety, stress, you know, where are we going [now]? What are we going to be given?" Ms Czernia said.
It's Ms Czernia's fourth admission at the hospital, which she describes as a life-saver.
Ms Czernia is worried that the next time she is ill she will have no option but to use the already stretched public hospital system.
"You have to be really unwell," she said.
"And I don't ever want to have to get to that stage [where] I can then access public health."
Her concerns are shared by healthcare professionals like Dr Joshua Geffen, who after 25 years at Toowong has had to pack up his office.
Dr Geffen is desperately trying to find alternatives for patients who rely on Toowong, to pick them back up when their mental health goes down.
"Very unwell people are going to have less access to care. They're going to finish up ramped in emergency departments," Dr Geffen told 7.30.
There is a small number of other facilities in inner-Brisbane: Ramsay Clinic in New Farm, Belmont Private Hospital at Carina Heights, Nundah Private Hospital and Avive Clinic in Windsor.
Dr Geffen has been frantically contacting those venues to get admitting rights.
"I have to ask colleagues who are also overburdened to take on the care of a patient who they don't know and doesn't know them, so it's profoundly disruptive and that runs the risk of having serious health consequences for patients."
One of the factors leading to Toowong Private's demise was a decline in admitting psychiatrists at the facility, which is part of a national trend where fewer specialists are based in hospitals because it is more profitable to work in private clinics.
Dr Geffen described the situation there as "bizarre".
Despite there being a waitlist, beds have remained empty due to there not being enough admitting psychiatrists.
Brett Heffernan of the Australian Private Hospitals Association said one of the main problems private hospitals face comes from health insurers underfunding private hospitals.
"They've banked more than $2 billion a year in record profits, while they've short-changed hospitals to the tune of more than a billion dollars a year."
The CEO of Private Healthcare Australia Rachel David disputed that claim.
"Health fund payments to hospitals have increased by 8 per cent over the last 12 months, which is well above inflation" Ms David said.
"And if you track back what health funds have been paying hospitals, it's followed health inflation almost exactly for the last 10 years."
In a statement to 7.30, Queensland Health said the department was in close contact with the hospital's administrators to "ensure a smooth transition for patients" to other private mental health facilities or services.
"The continuity of care for the patients is Queensland Health's priority, we are also resourced to provide suitable care, if required", the statement said.
Brett Emmerson, chair of the Queensland branch of the College of Psychiatrists, says the impact on patients from Toowong will be profound.
"Patients will end up in the public system, particularly at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the Prince Charles Hospital," Dr Emmerson said.
"It's still undecided what's going to happen to that veterans program, but it's a program of national significance.
"It provides evidence-based care not only to veterans but police and ambulance workers.
Mr Chambers remains hopeful that Toowong can be saved even as the doors prepare to close.
"I would love for someone to save it. I'd like to know that if I had to go back into hospital, I'd be back in Toowong," he said.
Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
