Mental health beds years behind schedule at region's biggest hospital

Funding for the five new beds was announced in June 2021 with the project initially scheduled to be completed by March 2022. But by the time builders Hames Sharley were appointed in October 2021, the timeline had pushed out to 2023.

The Standard asked the state government in November 2022 whether the project was still on track. It declined to say, simply indicating planning work was still underway.

But SWH chief executive officer Craig Fraser has now revealed the project - which he called "a game changer" for the region when it was announced - won't begin until 2024 at the earliest.

"This one's been a tough one," Mr Fraser said.

"It's been a complex project because it's not as simple as putting in another five acute beds, even though that's what the funding was supposed to do.

"The thing is you actually have to redesign the whole facility."

Mr Fraser said the $10.9 million budget had been an enormous challenge, because it had only been scoped to cover the new beds, rather than a full redevelopment.

"When we went back and looked at the planning for it, to be honest the plans we'd come up with - and which we've redone a number of times - the funding wouldn't cover it," he said.

"So we've had to keep reworking the plans with our clinical teams to make sure that whatever we end up doing addresses a more modern environment for an acute mental health unit to ensure it's safe.

"It's taken us longer than we'd hoped, but we're now back on the pathway where we believe we can develop it within the funding we've been provided."

Mr Fraser said he was confident all the planning kinks had been ironed out, but the new beds were still a fair way off.

"I think it's fair to say we won't have it done within a year, but I very much hope that we start it in early to mid next year," he said.

That timeline could mean the building works coincide with early construction of Warrnambool Base Hospital's long-awaited $384 million redevelopment.

"Technically it's not affected by the redevelopment, but given it's been delayed longer than we'd hoped, it could coincide with those works starting. So both projects may be impacted by that," Mr Fraser said.

While the acute mental health beds have faced setbacks, the health service has made significant strides in updating and developing its broader mental capacity.

Mr Fraser said the mental health service had expanded from three teams to four, adding a child and infant mental health service. He said the changes had been triggered by recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System, and the service was trying to adapt while dealing with the realities of ongoing workforce shortages.

"Our team have worked really hard not just to implement the royal commission's recommendations, but to do it in a pragmatic way," he said.

"What we are really invested in is building those teams. We've seen a large increase in funding for positions in mental health, but it hasn't translated into being able to recruit to those positions.

"So the teams have worked really hard to ensure we continue providing services but we're strongly recruiting for those roles and we're finding it very difficult."

Mr Fraser said the addition of a specific child-focused team stemmed from the royal commission finding that early intervention had significant long-term benefits.

"It's about trying to capture children from a very early age and have an impact as early as possible rather than leaving it later in their development where we'd have to address those issues more directly," Mr Fraser said.

"It's something we deal with on a daily basis already so the teams are already invested in how we can do it better but also working closely and collaboratively with partner agencies to address the issue."