Lay down the scented hankies
We don’t want Government reviewers to be akin to the nobility of olden times who, as they were transported through the cities, raised scented handkerchiefs to their noses to spare themselves the unpleasantness of the reeking masses.
And that is the impression carried by the news that Government-appointed reviewers weren’t up for actually visiting the dingy, dispiriting innards of Princess Margaret Hospital, where about 31 people with mental health problems languish.
The reported reason was that it ‘‘sounds awful, we don’t want to go there’’. This attitude, laden with the suggestion that the delicacy of the reviewers was a more vivid concern than the distress of the unwell and ill-served, has itself triggered surge of revulsion among the community.
We should note that the reviewers have agreed with with the legion of complainants calling for the relocation of the services to somewhere less horrid. So the charitably minded might interpret their reluctance to show up in person as being because they didn’t need convincing; the case was proven already.
No. That doesn’t suffice. ‘‘Not necessary’’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘‘sounds awful. . . don’t want to’’.. The reviewers were a senior psychiatrist and a mental health manager from the North Island. These are not careers widely regarded as suiting those of dainty disposition
Did it not occur to the reviewers, even on some instinctive level, that cases of unmet human need should be assessed unflinchingly?
Nobody, it seems, is pretending the facilities are even close to being fit-for-purpose for patients from youth mental health, severely depressed mothers and their babies, people with eating disorders, or others in vulnerable states. It’s a shocking situation, particularly because of the bureaucratic inertia that has developed around it, with activity aplenty but scant progress.
The Ministry of Health, Canterbury District Health Board, consultants and clinical reviewers have collectively managed to achieve a hot mess. Business cases and reports have been found wanting, funding contentiousness has become a slow-moving vortex and things have over time congealed to the state where a ’’refreshed’’ business case is deemed necessary before it can be presented for Government approval.
This being the sorry case, the reviewers made exactly the wrong call when they determined they could do their job without getting up-close-and-personal. Discomforting, upsetting tours should be required for all involved in this mess. They should have their noses rubbed in it.