The Whanganui District Health Board has released the report from the recent review of the Te Awhina acute mental health unit in the Board papers.

The review, commissioned by the National Director of Mental Health, reinforces the earlier findings regarding aspects of the service that need improvement.

Whanganui District Health Board Chief Executive Julie Patterson requested the Director carry out the review following media coverage of allegations made by a mental health patient.

“While it appears the review does not explicitly investigate the allegations, the reviewers did find that the mental health service was slow to respond and the safety of patients was compromised because the service lacked awareness of the reportable events.”

In response to the report Mrs Patterson commented that “it is simply not good enough that our service lacked these basic requirements. Since the review we have focused on urgently fixing these inadequacies and it is pleasing to see that the reviewers have acknowledged our prompt response in the report.”

Mrs Patterson said she was pleased that the Ministry has made a commitment to return in six months to review the progress being made by the service.

“We are now well underway in implementing our Achieving Excellence in Mental Health Project which developed from an earlier review. I am hopeful that people who use our mental health services will shortly notice the improvements underway.”

Mrs Patterson has advised that she will provide regular updates to the Board and will report back to the community the outcome of the Ministry of Health’s review in six months.