Is This the Dark Ages?

Published 19 May 2009, Posted in National / 2 Comments

The unnecessary death of a disabled woman at Hutt Valley hospital through basically starvation and neglect is atrocious in this day and age.

Are we still living in the dark ages?

Jonny Wilkinson, CEO of Tiaho Trust says “It is loathsome that it takes something like this to happen to galvanise the District Health Boards to address a systemic problem within our hospitals”.

This is a very sharp point in case that DHB’s need to have a plan to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy. 

The article in the Dominion Post clearly articulate the issue of hospital staff attitudes towards disabled patients as being a huge contributing factor to this death says Jonny Wilkinson.

In a press release yesterday Tariana Turia, Associate Minister for Disability Issues says that, “Having a disability should not have prevented this woman from accessing equitable, appropriate and quality treatment, for both her medical and nursing care; and her personal care - both aspects which the review highlighted”

“I will be writing to every District Health Board in this country to warn them of this tragic incident and to press upon them that the rights of people with disabilities must be upheld.

“I will also be asking the DHB and the Ministry of Health to commence dialogue to address the perceived service gap for people under 65 with lifelong disabilities who have disability support needs in hospital, to avoid this tragedy from ever happening again.”