Tony Ryall - Asshole of the Week | The Jackal

25 May 2013

Tony Ryall - Asshole of the Week

Yesterday, the Press reported:

A patient was allegedly forced to kneel for hours in a garage with his nose against the wall at a ''seriously dysfunctional'' residence for the intellectually disabled.

The man also complained that he was kicked, beaten and videotaped by staff, who an inquiry later found were abusing and neglecting their highly-dependant clients.

Latest Ministry of Health documents reveal that concerns from health professionals about the neglect of clinical care at facilities run by the Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust, a nationwide provider, went unanswered for up to two years.

It takes a real narcissistic asshole to neglect and abuse severely disabled people in this way. But what I find most despicable is that the abuse was allowed to continue for so long. Where on earth was the oversight for this horrible organization?

Therefore it's not just the abuser's that are at fault here... It's also the fault of those who allowed this abuse to continue. Being that this so-called trust attains substantial government funding, it's the responsibility of the Ministry of Health to ensure that public money is being spent appropriately, and not going towards supporting abuse.

In my opinion, providing money to an organization that's so obviously dysfunction while ensuring disabled people cannot be looked after by their own families because of funding restrictions is entirely unacceptable.

Couple this with the fact that cuts in funding so that checks and balances are no longer in place and it’s pretty clear that government policy is also at fault here. That's what has led to this widespread abuse of disabled people and the responsible Minister, Tony Ryall, should step up to the plate and ensure this kind of abuse doesn't occur again. He should also accept responsibility for it happening in the first place.

The latest revelations of widespread abuse are centred on the upper North Island, follow an investigation that uncovered a litany of horrors at a residence in South Auckland, including a disabled boy who was left alone in a paddock to eat grass.

Reports of failings at that facility, Parklands, prompted Health Minister Tony Ryall to order a review of the auditing, monitoring and accreditation of all residential disability providers.

At the same time, clients were physically assaulted by ''untrained and unsuitable'' staff - some who were former prisoners - who allegedly treated the residents more like inmates than patients.

Yet another review into problems caused by National cutting funding, in this instance cuts that have affected the most vulnerable within our communities.

Therefore this week's Asshole Award doesn't just go to Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust employees for conducting the abuse, it also goes to the government and more specifically Tony Ryall who has ensured, through detrimental policy, that defenseless disabled people are victimized.

The buck stops with the Minister of Health who has totally failed to make sure the Ministry of Health properly monitors such institutions. Tony Ryall is therefore in breach of his portfolio and should resign. In the mean time the incompetent Minister of Health wins this week’s Asshole Award. Hurrah!