Cath Cronin: Health NZ Deputy Chief Executive says investigations underway after 11 year old mistakenly sent to mental health facility

Health NZ says it is investigating in depth as to how an 11-year-old girl was taken to a Hamilton mental health facility in a case of mistaken identity. 

She was mis-identified as a 20 year old patient seen climbing Fairfield Bridge's railings - then cuffed and injected with antipsychotic drugs. 

Health NZ Deputy Chief Executive Cath Cronin says they're deeply sorry and are working with the family. 

She says there is much she can't reveal at present.

"We need to really understand what's happened here - and I've got to wait for the review to get down into the absolute details of what's happened."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Health in z speaking of have apologized after an eleven
year old girl was mistakenly admitted to a mental health
facility in the Whitecuddo. The girl was misidentified as a
twenty year old woman who was subsequently handcuffed by a
police and reportedly injected with antipsychotic drugs. The eleven year
old girl is both autistic and doesn't speak. Kath Cronin

(00:22):
is the tofutto Order or Healthy en Zed Deputy Chief Executive.
She's with me now, Hi, Kath, Oh, good afternoon, Ryan.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I know you want to apologize, so let's do that
quickly first.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, look, that's really important, So thank you for giving
me the time to do that. So I really do
extend my real apology to this girl and her family.
This has been traumatic for them, and we're very sorry.
We're just going to continue to keep giving them all
the ongoing and care and support that they need.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Fair enough, So police hand you a girl who's eleven
and you admit her as a twenty year old woman.
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
We need to really understand what's happened here, and I've
got to wait for the review to get down into
the absolute detail of what's happened. So we're going to
go step by step with clinical experts and our external
reviewers in with us to understand what did happen on
that over that Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
So you haven't yet asked the y Cato Health Center
or the Henry Bennett Center or the ED. You haven't
yet asked them how they identified this individual.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
We need to wait for the review. Look, it's really
important for me in my role to make sure I've
got facts, there's information around, but I need to give
the team and everyone else time to look into this
with the detail it deserves.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Okay, but it's a simple question. Have you asked them
how they identified this person or not?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, I've asked them that and we're starting to work
our way through it.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
What did they respond with.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
They're responding with that. We're looking at our policies we've gotason,
we need to go through those to understand if the
teams follow them on the day, And that's what I've
commissioned this review to do. We've escalated it and usually
our reviews can take some time. We're going to have
literinary reports, you know, within the week.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Kath, I'm not asking what the policies and the processes
are I'm asking what was done. They've told you what
their response was, why won't you tell us?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, they haven't got the details of that response yet,
So again, I'm going to wait on that review and
make sure when I do come and discuss with full
permission of the girl's family about what issues we can discuss. Well,
then I'll have facts to share with you.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Was she injected with hallo paradol, the antipsychotic.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Drug she look said, this is a privacy issue. The
family have asked us specifically not to share any details,
and so I'm going to stay with that at the moment.
We need to wait for the review.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Are there any long term health consequences for her from
this's happening.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
We're following up with the family and the girl regularly
there and then we'll wait for anything else that will
come from the review, from any medication or treatment that
was done in that period of time.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
When somebody turns up at ed and you know, let's
say police bring them, as was the case here, generally,
what is the policy do you check ID do you
try and identify, particularly if there's a mental health and
they turn up in handcuffs or do you just take
the police's word for it.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Look, I think that's a fair question to ask. And
you know, I've been talking with the acting District Commander,
Scott Demel today. We're both both of our agencies need
to take carriage this of this and look into it
with some details. So that's that's what we were outsort
of at the moment.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Why did it take you two weeks to tell the minister?

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Look, I think you know, with the benefit of hindsight
that you know, someone like they often has, I think
we could have done things very differently. We have followed
some processes and we're looking at why that notification didn't
go to the minister until just recently.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
All Right, kathiell leave it there, Thank you very much
for your time. That's kath Cronin, Too Fun to Order,
Deputy Chief Executive. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.