Aged suffer in staff crisis

A damning new report into the state of the country's aged-care facilities has revealed that staffing levels are well below what the Ministry of Health considers safe.

According to aged care workers, staff shortages are so severe that some elderly patients are only getting showered once a week, with many caregivers now stressed to the point of tears.

The study results, published by the Nurses Organisation and released today, show staffing levels are well below what they should be in almost all of 40 aged-care facilities surveyed around the country.

The study found "clear and consistent evidence of understaffing across nearly all sectors and groups".

Nurse staffing and caregiver staffing at rest homes was about half the level recommended in a Ministry of Health booklet on safe staffing levels for aged-care and dementia care facilities.

In aged-care hospitals, nursing numbers were significantly lower than the minimum needed, and less qualified staff - caregivers and enrolled nurses - appeared to be filling in for registered nurses.

In some instances, there were no registered nurses on duty.

Nurse staffing in mixed hospital/rest homes and caregiver staffing at dementia facilities fell short of recommended levels by about a third.

Nursing Organisation spokeswoman Cee Payne-Harker said the results confirmed what aged-care workers had long known: "It's at crisis point and the crisis is deepening."

She called on the Government to provide substantially more money to the sector, specifically for improving staff wages and conditions, and to legislate for minimum staffing levels.

Francis Van Petergem, 60, who has been a caregiver at Woodchester Hospital in Christchurch for nearly 20 years, was not surprised by the survey findings.

Staff cutbacks at Woodchester earlier this year meant some patients were only showered once a week, she claimed.

Rosylene Singh, a registered nurse with the Guardian Healthcare rest home/hospital in Manurewa, said patients were suffering because of staffing shortages.

Ms Singh and hundreds of other Guardian Healthcare aged-care workers, went on strike and protested in downtown Auckland on Friday over poor pay and conditions, and a 24-hour strike is planned for Thursday.

National Party health spokesman Paul Hutchison and Act party health spokeswoman Heather Roy said the study findings were the predictable result of the Labour Government having ignored a 2000 PricewaterhouseCoopers report warning the aged-care sector was underfunded by 25 per cent.

Caretaker Associate Health Minister Pete Hodgson did not return the Herald on Sunday's calls.

Martin Taylor, chief executive of Healthcare Providers NZ, said he was unwilling to comment on the study results until he had examined the methods used in the study.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY