A MENTAL health patient is believed to have been killed by a fellow inmate at Melbourne's Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital in what would be the third such death at the secure facility in three years.
The homicide squad is investigating after a man's body was found in a room at the secure hospital in Melbourne's northeast about 6.30am (AEDT) on Thursday.
It is believed another patient was also attacked but no further details were immediately available.
The incident has prompted renewed calls for a second mental health facility to be built in Victoria for high-risk patients.
Health and Community Services Union (HCSU) Victorian secretary Lloyd Williams says Thomas Embling is simply a hospital "inside a secure wall" with guards at the entrance but not on the wards.
"The facility does not have prison guards, it has nurses. It's a hospital, not a prison," he said.
Patients at the facility include people with some of the most severe mental illnesses. Most are prisoners who have become too unwell to be treated in prison, or those who have been found not guilty of crimes because of mental impairment.In 2009, psychiatric patient Peko Lakovski fatally stabbed two fellow inmates at the hospital with a large carving knife.
He was on a pre-release program at the time and had been on unescorted leave 738 times without incident.
Lakovski, a chronic schizophrenic, killed his wife in 2002 and seriously injured his father-in-law and was serving a nominal term of 25 years inside Thomas Embling.
He was last year ordered by a Supreme Court judge to return to the hospital after being acquitted of the 2009 murders due to mental impairment.
Mr Williams said he had raised the need for a second facility with Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge following the 2009 deaths.
"It's not good enough to have a one-size-fits-all approach," he said.
Mr Williams said staff would have been shaken by the latest incident.
"It will just bring back all of those fears and concerns following the previous incident," he said.
A Victorian government spokeswoman said it is premature to speculate while police are investigating but noted that a review following the 2009 deaths resulted in seven changes made to improve safety.
Premier Ted Baillieu blasted that report as a "whitewash" when he was opposition leader at the time.
"I don't think Victorians will wear it - to think that nothing will change as a consequence of this report," he said in December 2009.
The Baillieu government on Thursday flagged the construction of a 500-bed male prison, including a 75-bed mental health precinct.
An opposition spokeswoman said it would support a review to determine whether a new facility is needed, once the police and coronial investigation is complete.
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