Summary of concerns and urgent recommendations for Ward 10A and Helensburgh Cottage, Wakari Hospital

Purpose of this document

This document outlines our concerns and urgent recommendations as provided to Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health following our visit to Ward 10A at Wakari Hospital, Dunedin. We consider it is in the public interest to provide a publicly available version of our concerns and recommendations. Some information has been summarised or removed to protect the privacy of individual tāngata whaikaha. 

We acknowledge that the relevant agencies swiftly took action in response to our concerns and recommendations. Health New Zealand decided to close Ward 10A, and the Ministry of Health has initiated an inquiry into Ward 10A. We discuss the agencies’ responses in more detail in the section 'Actions taken in response to the urgent recommendations'. 

The original purpose of our inspection was to look into two thematic areas of interest – restrictive practices and transitions to the community. We are continuing to analyse the information collected on these issues, and may use this to inform further work or reports in this area.