The Press THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1972. Control of psychiatric hospitals

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 10

The Press THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1972. Control of psychiatric hospitals

From Saturday the psychiatric hospitals under the control of the Department of Health will be managed by hospital boards. Eight of the country’s 31 hospital boards will have their responsibilities greatly increased by the change: the North Canterbury Hospital Board will have about 3000 patients, twice the present number, in its care; and the number of its employees will rise from 3200 to 4200. The Nelson board now controls 300 hospital beds; it will have 900 extra patients when it assumes control of the Ngawatu and Braemar Hospitals. When the Mental Health Act, 1969, was introduced to Parliament in November, 1967, the change was formally initiated. The intention to make the change had been considered and widely accepted long before; and there has been little dispute about the merits of integrating mental health services with other medical services.

Putting general hospitals and psychiatric hospitals under local administration is but a step towards narrowing the division between psychiatric and general medicine. Yet it is a major change for the boards, for the department, and for hospital staffs. It should bring hospital administration much closer to the doctors who look after individual patients. It should help to end the long-standing and undesirable social distinction between mental and other health disorders, though that distinction is by no means as sharp or damaging as it was even a few years ago. The transfer to board control will properly concentrate one main field of the medical services, that of personal health, in the hands of regional boards. They can best mobilise local professional co-operation, public interest, and local welfare agencies to the advantage of the patient. The Department of Health will concern itself almost exclusively with another area, that of environmental health.

Long before the Mental Health Bill was introduced to Parliament it became apparent that State employees in the psychiatric hospitals were uneasy about the change. Their misgivings have not been entirely removed; but there is no reason why they should suffer any disadvantage in a change which has been carefully considered and thoroughly prepared. The North Canterbury Hospital Board has already had experience of taking over a departmental hospital and its State employees. When the board took control of St Helen’s Hospital, now the Christchurch Women’s Hospital, there were a few difficulties at first; they were soon satisfactorily resolved. All State employees in the hospitals are assured that they will suffer no reduction in pay; and the general shortage of hospital workers is in itself a guarantee that opportunities for employment and promotion will be maintained or, more likely, increased. No effort has been spared to ensure that the transfer of control is made smoothly; and the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s creditable record as an employer should inspire confidence in its new staff members that they will get a fair deal.