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

Professionals say a lack of resources and an ‘almost insatiable’ demand for services is limiting the ability to pursue long-term care and therapy

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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.