Just five extra beds for $1.9 billion

Newshub reports:

Newshub can reveal just five extra acute mental health beds have been added as a result of the Government’s much-lauded record mental health investment.  …

In Budget 2019 the Government announced $1.9 billion for mental health – $235 million of that was allocated to building mental health and addiction facilities. 

The Ministry of Health told Newshub that almost all of it has been committed but they couldn’t say how much had been spent.

“I don’t know where that money’s gone but from a person in the community and a patient, I don’t see it at all,” says Kiana. 

The Prime Minister couldn’t say on The AM Show on Monday morning how many extra beds that record investment created for acute youth. 

“That’s not something that I can share with you right off the bat,” she said. 

But Newshub can reveal the grand total of new acute mental health beds is just five. 

So they announced almost $2 billion over two years ago. And in that time all they have managed is five extra acute beds,

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