New Zealand inquest: Hospital mental health units should provide proper medical care

From TVNZ in New Zealand:

A coroner has told the Auckland District Health Board to ensure mental health unit patients receive the same standard of medical care as those in general wards following the death of a schizophrenic 60-year-old woman.

Maria Eve Richardson, who had a long history of mental illness, was found dead in Auckland City Hospital's mental health unit on July 24, 2007. An autopsy found she died from cardiac dysrhythmia.

The inquest found that the night before she died, Richardson's blood tests had shown grossly elevated free thyroxine levels, which Coroner Garry Evans later ruled might have contributed to her death.

An on-call medical registrar was called to assess the blood tests by telephone, and advised that Richardson did not require transfer to a medical ward.

"In retrospect, Richardson should have been physically examined by the medical registrar," Evans said in his findings.

In a report to Mr Evans, ADHB director of area mental health services Debbie Antcliff said mental health units had difficulty accessing input from general medicine for medically compromised patients.

She recommended that mental health units received greater input from medical teams.

"The Mental Health Unit should have easy access to the on-call specialist medical registrar who should be willing to attend," Dr Antcliff said.

Evans repeated the recommendation in his ruling, saying the DHB should "take the necessary steps immediately to ensure that patients in its mental health units receive at all times the same standard of medical care as patients in other wards and units."