S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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areas. Correspondingly, hospital facilities and services provided become smaller in scale, more multi-purpose (i.e. less specialised) and less equipped to handle acute cases as remoteness increases (National Strategic Framework for Rural and Remote Health, 2012). For example, in 2008–2009 there were 19 psychiatric hospitals in Australia, none of which were situated remotely. Table 2.9 Diversity of Public Hospitals, 2008 – 2009 (Adapted from AIHW, 2010)

Hospital Type

Major Cities

Regional

Remote

Total

Large

23 22

17 70

1 0

41 92

Medium

Small acute Psychiatric

0

110

40

150

10 13

9

0

19 86 79

Small non-acute

62 47

11 32

Multi-purpose services

0

By 2011–2012, there had been a reduction of the 19 in 2008–2009 to 17 specialist psychiatric hospitals, 14 of which were located in major cities and 3 in regional Queensland (AIHW, 2013c). 2.9 Mental Health Hospital Separations by Remoteness Having examined the relationships between remoteness and available health-related infrastructure and services, this section examines the effect of remoteness on mental health service delivery. As shown in Table 2.10, only 1.2% of all people admitted to hospital (including those admitted for specialist psychiatric care) via mental health patient separations were patients from remote areas. This is consistent with the lack of ability in remote areas to admit patients locally and the difficulty in transporting them to