MAJOR changes have been made at Wagga Base Hospital to improve services for mental health patients since the death of Justin Berkhout in 2007, the inquest into his death was told yesterday.

The improvements include a mental health nurse always being on duty in the emergency department and a new system of patient monitoring in which high-risk patients can be watched continuously.

Mental health nurse Colleen Redding, who has been deeply involved in the reforms, gave details of them yesterday at an inquest into Mr Berkhout's death.

Other changes include compulsory orientation on mental health policies and procedures for all new clinical staff and full integration of Mental Health Emergency Care Support staff into the emergency department.

"I really believe that partnership has seen an improvement in the past two years," Ms Redding said.

The inquest heard the changes at Wagga were being rolled out throughout the Greater Southern Area Health Service.

Another innovation was having coloured symbols on a white board within the emergency department, with red meaning full-time observation, orange meaning a check every 10 minutes and yellow meaning a check every 30 minutes.

Every three months there is an audit of random patient files to see if the new protocols are being followed.