Integrated wards at Carrington proposed

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 32

Integrated wards at Carrington proposed

PA Auckland Integrated male and female wards at Carrington Hospital should be reintroduced, the Auckland Hospital Board has agreed. The proposal is included in a report which contains recommendations aimed at relieving unrest at Carrington. It was presented to the board by its chief executive, Mr lan Campbell.

The recommendations are in response to demands put to the board by the Public Service Association.

Both groups, plus other Carrington representatives, have been involved in a series of meetings since trouble began simmering at the hospital

last month. Unrest began when the board closed the old Oakley secure unit, known as M 3, and tried to filter that unit’s patients into Carrington. Many were detained under the Criminal Justice Act, and a ban on caring for such patients by P.S.A. staff at Carrington or Kingseat hospitals has been in place since 1985.

The situation at Carrington deteriorated and a week ago the hospital’s acting medical superintendent, Dr Leslie Honeyman, was describing Carrington as being in a state of chaos. His comments came after a day in which plans by the hospital manage-

ment group to introduce segregated wards for males and females were overturned.

Nursing staff returned some patients to their original wards only hours after transfer. 1 When the P.S.A. again met the board on Thursday several claims were presented. These included immediate reversal of the segregation policy proposed by hospital management, immediate establishment of a safe-care unit at Carrington, and another at Kingseat Hospital, extra staff rostered for the acute admitting wards at Carrington, and return of the old Oakley ward M 7 to an openstructured living environment.