The Health and Disability Commissioner yesterday started a "formal investigation" into the use of ketamine for treating mental-health patients at Dunedin Hospital.
Ketamine is licensed as an anaesthetic.
Commissioner Anthony Hill said the National Health Board's investigation into the prescribing of ketamine at Dunedin Hospital's acute mental health ward 1A had been transferred to his office.
"The investigation will subsume [Health and Disability Commissioner] enquiries already under way." In July the NHB said a subcommittee would consider whether "off-label" prescribing of the anaesthetic had constituted experimental use without consent.
The Otago Daily Times last month requested the National Health Board report under the Official Information Act.
