Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T04:53:21.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A year in Auckland

A personal view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Darryl Watts
Darryl Watts*
Affiliation:
Glenside Hospital, Bristol
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I had acquainted myself with the psychiatric services in New Zealand some years ago during my student elective. I wanted to return to experience further a system which was both similar and different to the NHS. The New Zealand hospital system was funded in a similar way to the NHS. One organisational difference was the managerial layer, which was still filled by medical superintendents. Another difference was the extensive no-fault accident compensation scheme through which settlements were made without resort to lawsuits. Thus doctors paid low medical defence fees and were rarely sued, but the Government had regularly to meet a large bill. The psychiatric services were in the process of moving from hospital-based to community-based, in line with prevailing clinical and public attitudes. This was fuelled by some headline-making scandals over patient care in the asylums. One cause for general alarm was the poor health of ethnic minorities, especially the indigenous Maori. This issue resonated with racial and political overtones.

Type
Articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , March 1989 , pp. 127 - 129
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

References

Hoult, J. (1986) Community care of the acutely mentally ill. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 137–144.Google Scholar
Richman, A. & Harris, P. (1985) General hospital psychiatry: Are its roles and functions adjunctive or pivotal? General Hospital Psychiatry, 7, 258–266.Google Scholar
Stein, L. I. & Test, M. A. (1980) Alternative to mental hospital treatment I: Conceptual model, treatment program, and clinical evaluation. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 392–397.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.