The Health and Disability Deputy Commissioner found services provided to a woman at Waiapu House Lifecare were inadequate. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Health and Disability Deputy Commissioner found services provided to a woman at Waiapu House Lifecare were inadequate. Photo / Paul Taylor
Services provided at Havelock North's Waiapu House Lifecare to a woman in her 90s before her death were inadequate, an investigation has found.
Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall was critical that the woman's lifestyle care plan was written late and not adopted into her daily care to managepain, the mandatory interRAI assessment was not initiated and a last days of life care plan was also not initiated.
She found Heritage Lifecare Limited (trading as Waiapu House Lifecare) in breach of Right 4(1) of the Code of Health and Disability Consumer's Rights.
Wall said the care provided to the woman at Waiapu House Lifecare "was inadequate", and resulted in assessment and interventions not being actioned for the woman to manage her pain and end-of-life care.
The pensioner was initially admitted for respite care and then for hen just under a month later became a permanent resident requiring hospital-level care until she died just over a month later.
The Health and Disability Commissioner decision states that the woman was a resident during a period of staff turnover and managerial change, and it was ultimately Heritage Lifecare Limited's responsibility to ensure continuous care for her over this time.
Since this happened, Waiapu House Lifecare has taken a number of actions including reducing the number of rostered hours for registered nurses, allocating specific time for nurses to complete interRAI assessments and appointing a clinical quality support nurse to monitor this completion.
