As the festive season approached in 2021, Lily* was hoping to find a bed at a mental health hospital in Melbourne.
Facing a relationship breakdown, housing instability and suicidal thoughts, she was desperate for help.
A friend who worked as a psychiatrist told her about a brokerage service that tracked down hospital beds on behalf of prospective patients with private health insurance.
Lily, aged in her early 30s, sought a referral to a psychiatric hospital from her GP who connected her with the Victorian-based company Bed Brokers. The service is predominantly used by public hospital doctors to transfer insured patients to the private sector and GPs. But prospective patients with the right level of health cover, and a referral for inpatient treatment from a clinician, can also contact the bed brokerage service directly to get help securing an available bed at a private hospital.
Lily is among a growing number of mental health referrals the Melbourne-based brokerage service has recorded, amid a nation-wide shortage of inpatient mental health beds, particularly acute in the public system, and workforce gaps.
A psychiatrist at a Melbourne metropolitan hospital confirmed to Guardian Australia Bed Brokers is the only outsourced service that supports referrals of patients needing private admission from the public sector. Most public hospitals in Australia also have connections with nearby private hospitals to refer patients. Doctors outside Victoria are often faced with the administrative burden of trying to find an insured patient a bed in the private sector.
Operating since 2001, the 24-hour service is designed to help alleviate pressure from the public sector by transferring patients with appropriate insurance cover to private hospitals.
The service – which transfers patients with a range of conditions – is paid by the private hospitals for referrals. Bed Brokers is owned by Healthscope which owns a string of private hospitals across Australia. It says while it is owned by a private health company, it determines referrals based on patients’ needs including hospital location and access to the right specialist.
Within a month of Lily’s referral, she was admitted to the private mental health facility the Melbourne Clinic with the help of the service.
Lily opted for the private system due to working in the public health system and wanting to keep her professional life and healthcare treatment separate. She says her experience was positive and she benefited from the regular phone calls from the service as it searched for a bed.
“It was so helpful and validating, having an extra person to talk to. That in itself was therapeutic,” she said.
Dr Elizabeth Moore, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said mental health bed shortages highlighted the need for system-wide reform.
“Even before Covid, we were seeing rising rates of mental distress,” she said. “We all know that early intervention is more economical and more compassionate for people.
“If we don’t move the system back towards early intervention, then we will continue to need more inpatient beds, which we won’t be able to service.”
She said the brokerage service frees up psychiatrists from the administrative work of transferring patients and allows them to spend more time treating patients.
“As long as there is a good, warm handover then I think that’s the thing that you actually need when you are transferring somebody,” she said.
A Healthscope spokesperson said Bed Brokers had seen a “continued increase” in inquiries from people seeking admissions to mental health facilities, in line with increasing community demand for mental health support.
“Where an individual has an appropriate referral from a clinician, Bed Brokers will then reach out on the individual’s behalf to find appropriate inpatient treatment options,” the spokesperson said.
“While our mental health facilities manage most inpatient admissions directly, the Bed Brokers service does help many patients navigate the sector, and can also streamline the admissions process for hospitals and specialists.”
The spokesperson said the biggest challenge facing the public and private sector was a shortage of experienced mental health clinicians, especially psychiatrists, allied health and nursing staff. But it said Bed Brokers had no plans to expand into other states or territories.
* Name has been changed
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
