King Says Psych Patients Can Sleep on the Floor
The Minister of Health today declined to guarantee that no psychiatric patient would sleep on the floor in the future,
ACT Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.
"When I asked Annette King in Parliament today during Question Time to guarantee that no psychiatric patient would be
left sleeping on the floor, she said she would not. She said psychiatric patients had slept on the floor under previous
governments. In other words, patients had slept on the floor in the past, so it was acceptable for this practice to
continue.
"This it outrageous. Families with patients in other wards - say the cancer or surgical wards - would not tolerate
their family members sleeping on the floor. Why then should it be acceptable for psychiatric patients to be left in
sub-standard conditions?
"The Minister frequently comments that the stigma attached to mental illness is a barrier to getting better. If
sleeping on floors doesn't perpetuate the stigma, I don't know what does.
"The Minister needs to accept responsibility for the inferior treatment afforded to those with psychiatric conditions.
She seems to have plenty of money to give to the new primary healthcare sector but not enough to adequately fund mental
health services. Currently Mental Health receives sixty five percent of the recommended allocation.
"Psychiatric patients are left sleeping on the floors every week around New Zealand. Recently I revealed that in Hawkes
Bay, Hillmorton in Christchurch, and Wellington Hospital, acute-need patients are frequently left to sleep on the floor
or in hospital corridors.
"The Labour Government's under-funding combined with a sharp shift to community care and inadequate inpatient
facilities mean that psychiatric patients are slipping through the cracks," Mrs Roy said.