Families of suspected suicide cases speak out on delay
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
Relatives of two people who died in suspected suicides at Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health ward 10 years ago are disappointed at the lack of progress on its replacement.
RNZ can also reveal there was another suspected suicide at the troubled unit early last year – months after a new ward was supposed to open.
A replacement was necessary after reviews into two deaths on the ward in 2014: they were Shaun Gray, 30, who died a decade ago on Tuesday, and Erica Hume, 21, who died a month later.
Shaun Gray's brother Ricky said the family were aggrieved that nothing seemed to have changed since then.
“The ward is unfit. I don't know whether it's ... staffing levels. I don't know whether it's safety within the ward. I don't know if the original reports from Shaun's death are still today being looked at to make sure they don't creep back in, those causal factors.”
Inquests into Erica Hume and Shaun Gray's deaths were held in 2022, after long delays, although the findings have not yet been released.
“For us, it's [got] to the point now where we read of another death and we're not surprised,” Ricky Gray said.
“I think as a hospital – when a family has lost someone within that hospital for reasons that are going to be delivered within the [investigation] findings – it's just unacceptable. I don't know how they sleep at night when we struggle, 10 years on, waiting for findings from the coroner.”
Eleven mental health ward or alcohol and drug service patients have died of suspected suicides since the start of 2020, according to a list of serious hospital events obtained by RNZ.
There were seven suspected suicides for alcohol and drug service patients, two suspected suicides of ward patients on leave, including Philip Lucas, and two of ward inpatients.
RNZ has previously reported the death of 19-year-old patient Braden – we are not using his surname at his father's request –but the list of events has revealed the second inpatient death was within that timeframe, from February 2023.
From 2020 to 2024, two other hospital patients have died in suspected suicides on general wards. Some of the hospital's internal investigations into the deaths are ongoing – including for the February 2023 ward inpatient death. A recent change meant it had 120 days to file such reports, so it was overdue.
Ricky Gray said it was essential for these to be completed quickly, so the organisation could learn from its mistakes.
“We had assurance that MidCentral would act fast with the root cause analysis. It's the first step within the reporting process to understand what happened and try to mitigate any risk within the ward. Seeing that this [February 2023] report is still outstanding is of major concern to us.”
Ahead of the 2020 election, then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced a new $35 million ward had ministerial sign-off.
It was slated to open in late 2022, but construction did not start until last year and the now-$60m building was not expected to open until the middle of 2025.
However, Ricky Gray said he had seen other building projects at the hospital go ahead, and he could not work out why the new mental health ward was not started when the former MidCentral District Health Board had cash reserves last decade.
MidCentral had not explained the delay, he said.
“We're still struggling to understand why it took so long.”
Erica Hume's mother Carey was also shocked by the continued number of deaths, saying she felt sad for the families involved.
“I found it quite horrifying because it's now starting to look like a death on the mental health ward or a patient on leave from the ward is an annual event.
“When people or patients go to hospital [or] mental health services for help, it makes it even more of a tragedy when the very place that's supposed to help them cost them their lives.”
Carey Hume is further concerned about the long delays in coronial inquests. Stuff recently reported that waits for inquests were over five years long.
“We all know that’s four or five years away, so where is the learning? Where’s the ability for the family to put plans into place to keep their loved ones safe when on the ward or even when they’re on leave, as obviously management can’t or aren’t doing it by themselves?”
Carey Hume said if she had known the state of Palmerston North's mental health ward, she would have put a safety plan in place for her daughter, rather than trusting the system.
“My concern always has been – and still is – that management and staff change, but they don’t seem to learn. They don’t look at the history and therefore they re-implement the same circumstances, and profess to be shocked and sympathetic when the same bad outcomes happen.
“They make trite statements and say, ‘Our sympathy goes out to the families’, and that they’ll make changes. We’ve been hearing this for 10 years now.”
Carey Hume said she had heard some people say they were lucky enough to go private, but many could not afford that, and the public health system should be accessible to and work for the public.
Te Whatu Ora Health NZ said it was treating our request for information about the deaths we had not previously reported under the Official Information Act, meaning a response could take up to four weeks.
A spokesperson for Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said it would be inappropriate to comment on the February 2023 death while an investigation was ongoing.