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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Natasha May

‘The system is broken’: deaths involving escaped patients expose NSW’s mental health crisis, hospital workers say

Mental Health New South Wales Chris Minns Cumberland
Generic of a patient in a bed and a nurse assisting them
The Cumberland branch president of the nurses’ union, Nick Howson, says there is a ‘systemic issue’ with the NSW mental health system. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

The separate escapes of two mental health patients from the hospital responsible for the most complex psychiatric cases in western Sydney points to an inability to provide longer-term care when “demand is almost insatiable”, medical sources say.

A man charged with murder after a stabbing attack in Merrylands on Tuesday had allegedly absconded from Cumberland hospital. In an unrelated matter, it has been alleged that another of the hospital’s patients caused a car crash that killed two people on Saturday.

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