Mental health plan grows

A plan to speed up work for getting a new mental health ward at Palmerston North Hospital is under way, but needs approval from the Ministry of Health and the Treasury. The Midcentral District Health Board has been working on improving the ward since two suspected suicides in 2014 highlighted its inadequacy. The board has already been told the best way to deal with the problem is either a rebuild costing about $26 million, or trying to extend and refurbish the current ward for about $17.5m. A full rebuild would avoid disrupting services. At a board meeting yesterday, mental health and addictions operations executive Vanessa Caldwell said those were still the best two options, with the rebuild performing better against the project’s criteria. However, no work could take place until a business case was presented to the ministry and the Treasury. Usually, an initial business case would be put together and assessed before a second, more complete business case was created. Caldwell said staff had written to the ministry and the Treasury, asking to skip the initial business case and go straight to the second case. Board deputy chairman Brendan Duffy initially raised concerns about the process, worried it could result in the new ward being delayed. But Caldwell said staff were still able to do work on a business case in the meantime. It was just a question of which business case would need to be completed. ‘‘We are not going to sit and wait for a direction [from the ministry and the Treasury],’’ she said. ‘‘We’re still getting information so we can progress things as quickly as we can.’’