Health Minister - Will No Longer Accept Basic Mental

Health Minister Bill English told psychiatrists today that he could no longer accept failures in basic steps in the care of the mentally ill.

"I have to account to the public for perceived failures in mental health," he told the Royal College of Psychiatrists Conference in Christchurch.

"Some of those perceived failures are unavoidable, in the sense that clinical judgements involve an element of risk. I will defend any professional who did their best, but at the end of the day made the wrong call.

"What I can no longer accept are failures in basic steps in the care of people with a mental illness. These are the things that should happen for every patient 100 percent of the time. The Paki case was an example of that kind of failure.

"It is publicly indefensible to get the basics right 80 or 90 percent of the time. That just isn't good enough, not only for the sake of the people with mental illness, but because I don't think the public can take any more."

Mr English said he had been told there had been 68 official mental health inquiries between 1987 and 1996.

"I simply can't stand up and announce yet another inquiry into yet another service failure.

"Next time around I have to do something fairly fundamental, like provide for someone else to provide a service, if that service has failed to meet expectations of basic skill and professionalism," he said.