Waikato DHB chief executive statement re Frankton murder

Waikato DHB chief executive Craig Climo today said he’s perturbed at the inaccuracy of some of the reporting in the media following the murder of a 53-year-old woman in Frankton, Hamilton on Tuesday.

The police have consistently said they are totally satisfied with the nature and timing of the reporting to police from the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital and that agreed procedures were followed.

“Our mental health service acted appropriately. No-one’s calls (to us) were ignored,” said Mr Climo.

“Most of the other queries put to us by the news media we can not answer because of legal proceedings and suppression orders.

“We can say there are standard procedures we follow at Waikato DHB when there is an event which impacts on our patients, our services or our staff.

“In this case an incident management team was put in place immediately we were advised by the police.

“We also started our serious and sentinel event reporting process.
(http://www.qic.health.govt.nz/) the results of which help us learn from this and other events.”

Date: 21 January 2010

Contact:

Mary Anne Gill
Director
Media and Communications
Waikato District Health Board
Ph: 07 834 3684
Fax: 07 839 8680
Mobile: 021 705 213