WorkSafe has charged the Melbourne Health under the OHS Act after a Royal Melbourne Hospital patient took their own life after being admitted to the hospital.
Melbourne Health faces one charge under section 23(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks, and one charge under section 26(1) of the OHS Act for failing to ensure a workplace under its management and control was safe and without risks to health.
The patient took their own life after being admitted to the hospital for an emergency mental health assessment in June 2024.
As reported in 2021, Melbourne Health was fined $340,000 for similar safety breaches that led to another patient's suicide in 2013 at a mental health impatient facility in Broadmeadows. It was found in that case that Melbourne Health staff failed to identify the risk of a makeshift curtain in the patient’s room being used for self-harm.
Section 23 of the OHS Act imposes a duty on persons in charge of a workplace to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees are not exposed to health and safety risks. In recent months WorkSafe has charged multiple health care providers after patients have taken their own lives while receiving care in a hospital.
It is hoped that this follow-up from WorkSafe to these tragic events will improve the safety of vulnerable people seeking help from healthcare facilities.
SafetyNet reported last year (here and here) on multiple hospitals facing charges in similar circumstances but the outcomes of those cases have yet to be published.
Read more: https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/news/2026-05/health-service-charged-after-death-emergency-care