Patient Mauled by Tiger Because of Staff Shortages in Hospital

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 09, 2003

Patient Mauled by Tiger Because of Staff Shortages in Hospital

Staff shortages and overcrowding at Wellington Hospital's psychiatric unit contributed to a patient leaving and later being mauled by a tiger at Wellington Zoo, a news report said.

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Staff shortages and overcrowding at Wellington Hospital's psychiatric unit contributed to a patient leaving and later being mauled by a tiger at Wellington Zoo, a news report said.

In February, a 29-year-old man absconded from Wellington Hospital's inpatient mental health unit and was attacked by a tiger after he scaled a 4.5m fence surrounding a tiger enclosure at Wellington Zoo.

He suffered serious injuries, but has since recovered.

In a report released Monday, Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) admitted its shortcomings had contributed to the incident.

Mental Health Service Clinical Director Peter McGeorge said while the service had privately expressed its regret to the man and his family, he also wished to publicly acknowledge their distress.

"We accept that this man was in our care and should have been safe. We are very concerned and sorry that we failed to protect him in the way he and his family would have expected.

"A person who is in our inpatient ward has not committed a crime and is not a prisoner, therefore the doors are not locked.

"However, we accept we have a responsibility to do the best we can to prevent someone leaving without clinical approval."

The report said the unit had two more patients than its official bed status allowed on the day the man left the ward.

"The inpatient actual numbers should never go above those for which the ward was designed."

The report said "many things might have contributed to him leaving the ward unseen, including nurse/patient ratios due to staff shortage, ward overcrowding, a lack of continuity of care ...his own efforts to avoid detection."

McGeorge said the CCDHB had accepted the report and would try to make changes at the ward and reduce the number of inpatients.

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