Four years after a review stated that mental paperwork delays were unsatisfactory and were a cause of concern, the Queensland government stated that attempts will be on to reduce this delay.

It was stated that five times more time was being taken by administrators while making file psychiatric reports on criminal offences done by mentally ill people who were charged with them.

According to Director of Mental Health Aaron Groves, court processes were unnecessarily delayed due to the late paperwork and victims, patients and families can suffer adversely due to this.

Last financial year, 115 days were taken by a mental health service to make a psychiatric report and hand it over to the director despite the Mental Health Act setting a 21-day deadline for a mental health service to make this report.

In a 2006 mental health laws review, a similar problem regarding making the reports was seen and the state government pledged to tackle the problem.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas said, “I have recently spoken to Dr Groves to express his concern about the ongoing issue. We discussed the steps his unit is already taking to ensure timely reports are produced by psychiatrists across the system.”