Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said clinical mistakes involving people in mental distress were far too common. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The head of the Mental Health Foundation says he is not confident there will not be a repeat of a mistake that saw an 11-year-old girl wrongly identified as an adult mental health patient.
A Health NZ review found hospital staff in Hamilton initially noted that the girl resembled a child with an intellectual disability before accepting police assurances she was a missing 20-year-old woman.
She was admitted to a facility and injected with medication.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the oversight was appalling.
"This is a very extremely tragic situation, it's a horror show really, so let's all hope that something this bad never happens again. But an incident of poor service, clinical errors, poor service to people in mental distress, no I'm not confident that that will never happen again," Robinson said.
Poor patient service and clinical mistakes involving people in mental distress were far too common and the mistake highlighted the urgent need for a law change, he said.
The girl would have been safer if there were more restrictions on medicating unwilling patients, Robinson said.
Meanwhile, an advocate wants heads to roll and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey to step in.
Jane Stevens' son, Nicky, died after he disappeared from the same facility several years ago.
She said she had lost confidence in Health NZ bosses making necessary changes, despite the organisation saying it was taking steps to prevent the mistake happening again.
"They need systemic change, they need to get rid of the management that has been there for a long time and they actually need a thorough investigation on what is actually going on in that organisation that allows time after time after time for these kind of incidents to happen," Stevens said.
Health NZ on Wednesday released findings of its review after the child was mistaken for a mental health patient.
The panel made eight recommendations, including an apology to the girl and her family.
Health New Zealand chief clinical officer Dr Richard Sullivan said staff endeavour to provide high standards of care, and wanted to ensure such an incident did not happen again.
"We accept all of the review the findings. The review team included several senior clinicians from Health NZ, as well as a panel of external experts to Health NZ, who were extensively involved in reviewing and providing feedback," Sullivan said.
Health NZ said it was now creating a national policy on best practice for identifying un-named patients.
Ministry of Health mental health director Dr John Crawshaw is considering what further action is needed following the review of this event at Waikato Hospital.
The findings into the incident have been referred to him and he is considering whether to launch an inquiry into it.
Dr Crawshaw expects to finish his initial review next week and will formally notify ministers on the next steps after that.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
