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Secret Graylands papers leaked

Highly sensitive information about mentally ill patients, including the names of dozens of asylum seekers, has been leaked from Graylands Hospital in a security breach that has also revealed a lack of beds.

The Weekend West has obtained internal documents from meetings of the hospital management team's clinical group that reveal services struggling to cope, including a warning that beds for rehabilitation are being used to cope with an overflow of urgent patients.

It says this can lead to the "clinical deterioration" of patients, despite the hospital insisting this week that all acute and rehabilitation patients are provided with the care they need.

It comes in the week that inquests began into the deaths of 10 patients at the 172-bed hospital, and after confirmation that a nurse has been reprimanded and clinical staff will be retrained after an investigation into a man who was mistaken for an escaped long-term involuntary mental health patient.

Psychiatrist and former Australian Medical Association president Paul Skerritt said continuing issues at the hospital should not be blamed on staff but on systemic problems at the ageing facility.

"I said years ago that the place was archaic and should be bulldozed and I stand by that," he said.

"That sort of facility is obsolete because people should be treated close to their local community in association with a general hospital, where things like mistaken identity are less likely to happen."

The leaked minutes show staff worried about "ongoing problems with acute overflow into rehab beds", which they said could lead to "clinical deterioration" and undermine care.

They also reveal personal patient information, including the names of asylum seekers from the Derby, Christmas Island, Curtin and Perth detention centres treated at Graylands for conditions ranging from "adjustment disorder" to paranoid schizophrenia.

The documents noted there was "financial recoup for every day of care for detainees".

The minutes also detailed staff failing to complete mandatory training, with a warning that the hospital could lose its accreditation.

The North Metropolitan Health Service said it regretted that confidential patient information had been available in the wider community and was introducing extra measures.

A spokeswoman said bed numbers were being addressed.