Palmerston North Hospital’s new mental health ward was officially opened on Friday.
Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Long-awaited new mental health ward opens in Palmerston North
Health NZ apologises to families of patients who died in the old ward for not inviting them to the ceremony
New ward has increased safety features; patients likely to arrive late next month.
Warning: This story contains reference to self-harm and suicide
More than 11 years after the deaths of two patients at Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health ward triggered damning reviews into the facility, a replacement has opened.
But the families of Erica Hume and Shaun Gray, who died in 2014, and of patients who have died since, were absent from the official ceremony for the $66.6 million new build on Friday.
Health NZ says they will get a chance to look through the new ward and has apologised if they wanted to attend the opening.
Staff, iwi and dignitaries, such as Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey, filled the foyer for the opening ceremony.
Carey Hume (left) at the inquest of her daughter Erica Hume (in framed picture) who died in a suspected suicide when she was a Palmerston North Hospital mental health ward patient.
Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Absent was Carey Hume, whose daughter Erica died in a suspected suicide in May 2014.
“It’s been a long time coming and we were disappointed to learn we were excluded from attending the opening day as we would have appreciated being able to talk with some of the other people who’d worked hard, like us, to get a new mental health ward in Palmerston North,” Hume said.
She and husband Owen campaigned for years for a new ward – regularly travelling from Bay of Plenty to attend district health board meetings, until they were scrapped, and regularly questioning health officials.
Hume said she and officials had discussed a tour of the ward.
“We’d like to, as would other families who have either had someone die on ward 21 or suffer serious harm as a result of the old ward environment.
“I imagine they might appreciate being able to see the new ward,” she said.
“It would be a bitter-sweet thing, knowing it would be an ‘if only’ situation, but it could help them knowing what future patients would be experiencing.”
Shaun Gray, a mental health patient who died on 16 April 2014.
Photo: Supplied
Shaun Gray died by suicide in April 2014 and a coroner’s report this year was critical of his care, and the old ward.
His brother Ricky, who had also campaigned for change, said the family had yet to receive an invitation to the new facility.
“Now, it’s coming up to the 11-year mark from the day when the external review was completed which stated the ward was unfit for purpose.
“I have to acknowledge the previous chief ombudsman, Peter Boshier, for highlighting the need for the ward. He did some surprise audits which indicated it was not fit fur purpose.”
Minister for mental health Matt Doocey says the new wards are different from the facilities of the past.
Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Ricky Gray also acknowledged, as did Doocey, the previous government for announcing the new ward’s build, in 2020.
It was to have cost about $35 million and was expected to open at the end of 2022, but there were delays and cost blowouts.
Since 2014 there have been further deaths on the ward or among ward patients.
Karl Pearce, whose 19-year-old son Braden died in a suspected suicide in 2021, said he was having a look around the ward next month.
He’s also spoken about the need for the new ward to open as soon as possible to avoid further tragedies, but he said it wasn’t the only answer.
Understaffing of nurses and under-resourcing needed fixing.
“A new building won’t fix handover issues, which is primarily the reason our children died,” he said.
One of the rooms in the new facility. Patients are likely to begin moving in from next month.
Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Health NZ says sorry
Health NZ operations executive for MidCentral Sarah Fenwick said officials were working with families to offer them guided tours where they could ask questions and look round the new building in their own time.
“I’m really really sorry for the families if they were hoping to be here today. We thought it was better for them to come in that individualised capacity, but we apologise if that’s caused any distress to them.”
Mental health ward nursing and healthcare assistant roles were over 90 percent filled, and the ward was fully staffed for doctors.
Health NZ was recruiting for more psychiatrists. It had a budget for 20 full-time equivalents in MidCentral, and had eight permanent employees and six locums.
It was working out its plans to get patients into the new ward.
“We’re probably looking at around the end of October. We really want families to have the opportunity to come here. We also want our staff to be in here to have a separate time to be welcomed into the facility.”
The new building was safer and included anti-ligature features and more glass, so there were better lines of sight, Fenwick said.
There will be CCTV in the reception area, entrance and external sides of the building, but not in clinical areas.
It will, for now, have the same number of beds as the old ward, which had operated at an average of 80 percent capacity over the past year.
“At the time that the building was build 28 beds was the amount that was required. This building would need to be extended for another eight beds. That’s actually the opportunity – you can extend it into the future, but it wasn’t required now.”
Māori health luminary Sir Mason Durie told the opening ceremony about the first mental health ward at Palmerston North Hospital – Manawaroa, which opened in 1970.
He said it was an early foray into community treatment and away from psychiatric institutions, but was austere compared with the colourful and well-lit new ward.
Doocey said new mental health facilities were different to what came before.
“Facilities like this deliver on the recommendations on the abuse in care inquiry, when there was a recommendation around mental health facilities that supported better safety, better privacy and better dignity for patients.”
The minister acknowledged the deaths of ward patients and said the new facility was a long time coming.
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