Transfer of Oakley patients sought

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 5

Transfer of Oakley patients sought

PA Auckland The Auckland Hospital Board has asked the Health Department to transfer four patients from Oakley Hospital to the more secure Lake Alice Hospital, near Marton. The board’s chairman, Dr Frank Rutter, said last evening that letters and documentation had gone to the department. “I believe that we will receive the authority to transfer the patients, because clearly those people are inappropriately placed at the moment.” He said that an Oakley escaper, Paul Massof, caught yesterday in Australia, would be among those transferred. Dr Rutter said he was

angry that “repeated applications” to transfer patients to Lake Alice Hospital had been rejected by the department.

The Health Department had been misleading the Hospital Board, he said. Earlier in the year he had suggested to the department that several patients be transferred to Lake Alice. However, he was told that Lake Alice was full, and subsequent approaches about transfers had been turned down. Dr Rutter said he was sure the latest, formal applications would be approved “fairly quickly.” Business owners and residents near Oakley Hospital were at the “end of their tether” because of incidents

involving patients, a woman who is organising a meeting over the problem said yesterday.

Ms Julie Facoory, a resident who will lead a delegation to meet.. hospital administrators on Sunday, said residents were so frightened she was worried someone would “retaliate and kill one of the patients.” “They are going to have to toughen up (security) at Carrington as well,” she said.

Carrington Hospital is a few hundred metres further along the same road as Oakley. Local people would not tolerate having a maximum secure unit planned for Auckland built at Oakley, she said.