Staff 'responded immediately' to patient escape
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey has reiterated to Health New Zealand that patient and public safety are of "paramount importance", after a man absconded from a mental health facility.
Canterbury police released a statement about 9pm on Thursday appealing for information about the 35-year-old who had absconded from the care of another agency.
Police had been notified about 6pm that the man was missing. They said he was dangerous and shouldn't be approached.
The man was found about 10pm.
RNZ understands the man absconded from Hillmorton Hospital. He was found about 6km away from the mental health facility.
Health New Zealand has been approached for comment.
A spokesperson for Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey told RNZ his office was advised on Thursday night about a patient leaving Hillmorton.
"The Minister was advised by Health New Zealand that safety of the individual and community was at the forefront in how they responded with police."
HNZ staff "responded immediately" and worked with Police to safely locate the person and return them to Hillmorton last night.
"Health New Zealand is taking the incident seriously and there will be a rapid review and will take appropriate action as required.
"The Minister reiterated to HNZ that patient and public safety are of paramount importance, and Health New Zealand have assured the Minister that they are taking all the necessary steps to ensure both."
The incident comes three years after Hillmorton forensic mental health patient Zakariye Mohamed Hussein murdered Laisa Waka Tunidau as she walked home from work.
Hussein was on community leave at the time of the killing.
Two reviews were ordered, one into Hussein's care, and another looking at Canterbury District Mental Health Services.
In June another Hillmorton mental health patient, Elliot Cameron was sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years for murdering 83-year-old Frances Anne Phelps, known as Faye in October last year.
Following his sentencing a suppression order was lifted allowing RNZ to report Cameron killed his brother Jeffrey Cameron in 1975. A jury found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and he was detained as a special patient.
Cameron was made a voluntary patient at Hillmorton Hospital in 2016, and then in October last year murdered Phelps, striking her with an axe.
RNZ exclusively obtained emails from Cameron to his cousin Alan Cameron sent over more than a decade, detailing his concerns that he might kill again.
In response to the revelations, Chief Victims Advisor Ruth Money said it was hard to see Phelps' death as "anything other than preventable".
RNZ earlier revealed another case involving a man who was made a special patient under the Mental Health Act after his first killing was recently found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity for a second time, after killing someone he believed was possessed.
After that article, Money called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into forensic mental health facilities.
After Cameron's first killing was revealed, Money said she stood by her recommendation.
"The public deserves an inquiry that can give actionable expert recommendations, as opposed to multiple coroners' inquests and recommendations that do not have the same binding influence. The patients themselves, and the public will be best served by an independent inquiry, not another internal review that changes nothing."
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