More asylum seekers in Australian hospitals

Australian doctors are increasingly treating asylum-seekers being held in immigration detention in the country's north, many suffering mental illness.

Darwin's major hospital is struggling to treat the large number of asylum seekers who have been traumatized by immigration detention, many asylum seekers have attempted suicide and some have to be admitted to the psychiatric ward.

The Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said three to five detainees from Australian immigration Centre’s were being brought to hospitals every day, many with mental or recurring issues. "They are all complicated cases, because virtually all of them will have some mental health issue," said Dr Paul Bauert, president of the AMA.

Dr Paul Bauert Said "They are not straightforward (cases), there is a fair degree of mental illness and chronic anxiety with their representations. They often need interpreters which are hard to find. So the whole process... becomes compounded."

Bauert said while some cases clearly involved psychiatric illness, other asylum-seekers came with chest or abdominal pain which needed to be examined despite the often firm suspicion it related to mental health.

Dr Bauert says immigration health services are not helping. "One of the ways that's used in an effort to decrease the amount of presentations to the health staff at the detention Centre’s is the use of anti-depressants," he said.

"One gets the feeling that both Minister [Chris] Bowen and the Health Minister, Plibersek, really don't understand the health conditions of the Northern Territory population and certainly has no understanding of the amount of psychological stress that they are putting on these unfortunate people in detention." He says long-term drug use is putting the detainees at further risk.

Rights groups have long criticized Australia's policy of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers arriving by boat, under which many are kept at remote and isolated detention Centre’s which have been beset by unrest.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government was concerned about mental health in detention but noted that asylum-seekers had appropriate access to health facilities. "People in detention will be taken to Royal Darwin Hospital when they are medically assessed as requiring emergency or specialist health services for various health complaints," he added.