Doctors forced to intubate patients due to mental health bed shortage
The ‘distressing’ last resort option is needed to keep Territory ED staff safe, says the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
ED doctors in Darwin say they have resorted to sedating and intubating patients with severe mental illness because of a lack of staffed psychiatric beds.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) president Dr Clare Skinner defended the last-resort approach, which she said was “deeply distressing” for patients and their doctors.
