THE PRESS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1983. The tragedy of Oakley

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 14

THE PRESS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1983. The tragedy of Oakley

The founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, set down the canon that the first requirement of a hospital is that it should do no harm to the sick. The indictments contained in the report of the Committee of Inquiry on Oakley Hospital make it clear that the precept was only one of many principles of modern psychiatric treatment not well observed at the hospital. The inquiry was set up by the Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, as a result of the death in Oakley Hospital of Mr Michael Watene, half an hour after he received electro-convulsive therapy. The specific findings of the committee in regard to Mr Watene’s death, even though set down with clinical detachment, paint with shocking clarity the confused nightmare in which a heavily-drugged Mr Watene lived the last seven days of his life. More generally, the committee found conditions and attitudes prevailing at Oakley highly unsatisfactory; it found a reliance on drugs that have not been used in Australian psychiatric institutions for the last 10 years. Such concessions to modern technology and pharmacology that were made at Oakley were criticised by many expert witnesses before the committee as being outdated or discredited. The report will confirm many fears about Oakley that the public has entertained. The first shock of reading it will be replaced in many people by a sense of anger that such things still can be. The committee has sensed this and warns against a witch-hunt. Seeking scapegoats among the staff of Oakley Hospital could too easily form an excuse or temporary palliative, avoiding the more difficult necessity to transform the hospital itself. The committee notes that it would be easy but wrong to react with sanctions on

individuals who. in some instances at least, may be the victims of a system within which they have been required to work. Individual responsibilities exist, the committee says. Nevertheless, the main concern of the committee is to scrap the deficient and inadequate system and procedures that developed at Oakley and start afresh with greater enlightenment. “Michael Watene’s death will achieve a much greater significance if it results in a transformation of Oakley Hospital, which is possible and-we believe long overdue,” the report says. Among the 79 recommendations the committee makes, several can be implemented immediately, others will take more time and more money. The committee has been unable to explain how what went on at Oakley Hospital has been tolerated for so long. Many of the committee’s findings were parallel to those of a 1971 Commission of Inquiry on Oakley and yet, as the committee notes, little has been done to improve matters since then. The Auckland Hospital Board, which sometimes appeared to prefer to wash its hands of Oakley Hospital, does not come out of the inquiry with much credit. The committee finds that the board’s excuses for not “interfering” were inadequate. In short, the committee found that the board had failed to fulfil its obligations. Mr Malcolm, as Minister of Health, cannot simply put all matters back into the hands of the board. Dithering and a lack of resolve by the board over the last 10 years allowed the decline in standards at Oakley Hospital to the point at which the death of Mr Watene, or some other unfortunate patient, was almost inevitable. Mr Malcolm must ensure that matters are not allowed to drift again.