Life parole man poses problem for hospital

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A man on life parole has spent three months in Gisborne Hospital despite two alleged assaults on staff, as agencies jostle over who is responsible for his care.

The Tauranga man, formerly from the East Coast, did not require acute services and the hospital was acting as a "last resort" because the man had nowhere else to go, said Tairawhiti District Health chief executive Jim Green.

Strict protocols were in place to ensure the safety of staff and other patients while the man stayed in the hospital but it was clearly not an ideal situation for anyone.

Mr Green said there was a real possibility the man might return to jail but until then his case was "too complex" for many of the community residential support services to deal with.

"He is a client of Community Corrections and they have a process they have to go through as well...he does not need to be in hospital but at the moment he has nowhere else to go.

"This person requires support for daily living and we cannot just let him go and shut the door. We have a responsibility to find him a place where he will receive the care he needs.

"It is a reasonably rare case, with unusually complex circumstances. A hospital is for acute care services so obviously he cannot live here, but sometimes other solutions have to be found because working with agencies and whanau is not always successful."

Planning, funding and population health manager Helene Carbonatto said each year the hospital dealt with one or two complex patients who, like this one, took time to sort out.

- NZPA