Mental health patients spending more than 100 hours in Cairns Base Hospital's emergency department before admittance | Courier Mail

The problem has become such a regular occurrence that concerned hospital staff have given the patients a name - the "centurions", doctors say.

One recent psychiatric patient spent 158 hours - just 10 hours short of a week - in emergency awaiting admission because of a shortage of mental health beds at the hospital.

Cairns Base Hospital anaesthetist Sandy Donald, a senior vice-president with Queensland public sector union, Together, said the emergency department was an inappropriate place to care for mental health patient

Mental health patients spending more than 100 hours in Cairns Base Hospital's emergency department before admittance | Courier Mail