Plans for the country’s biggest Kmart revealed, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump get set to face-off and Queenstown to get gondola transport tech.
A parliamentary inquiry into the huge increase in the number of Kiwis with dementia is happening at the same time that services could be cut, Alzheimers New Zealand has warned MPs.
Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora has denied services for older people will be reduced, but Catherine Hall, the chief executive of Alzheimers NZ, said those in the sector are nervous.
Hall appeared before Parliament’s health select committee this morning, which is holding an inquiry into the aged care system, including care for the rapidly growing number of Kiwis with early onset neurological disorders, including dementia.
The inquiry was committed to in the NZ First-National coalition agreement.
“Since submissions to this inquiry have closed, we have heard that decisions are under way to reduce the services available to older people, many of whom are living with dementia or a neurological condition,” Hall told MPs.
“Health New Zealand has said that is not the case, and we certainly hope that is true, because if it is the case then that would make a broken system very much worse.”
Hall said the risks from rising numbers of people with dementia - expected to double by 2040, with higher rates for Māori, Pasifika, and Asian people - were “very significant”, but could be mitigated and even reduced with a proper policy and funding response.
“It isn’t too late to stem the tide...[but] neither the aged care sector, nor the health sector, is ready for the impact of the ageing population, or the impact of the rapidly increasing numbers of people with dementia.”
The commissioner of Health New Zealand, Dr Lester Levy – who was appointed in July to overhaul the organisation after its board was abolished – has been tasked with finding $1.4 billion in savings, but has vowed the clinical frontline will not be reduced.
Hall told the inquiry that fully funding and implementing the Dementia Mate Warewarea Action Plan - drawn up by Alzheimers NZ, the Dementia Foundation, the Mate Wareware Advisory Rōpū and Dementia NZ, would relieve pressure on the health system, and reduce the future costs of dementia to the government.
Some money was pledged towards the plan under the previous government, including to run pilot programmes, after its Cabinet endorsed it in 2021. However, more funding is needed for it to be fully implemented.
National MPs on the committee questioned whether proper funding wasn’t provided by the previous government. In reply to questions, Hall said for community dementia services specifically, $127m was needed over three years. Currently, less than 20% of people who need community support are receiving it, Hall said, because of a lack of funding.
“What I can’t answer...is how much is needed to solve the funding issues in the home support area and the aged residential care area, in order to get timely diagnosis.”
Former NZ First MP Tracey Martin is chief Executive of the Aged Care Association, which represents most owners of aged care facilities. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Costs of aged care/rest homes will rise for Kiwis under planned reforms, Aged Care Association warns - and others will be denied a bed
Tracey Martin, chief executive of the Aged Care Association, which represents most owners of aged care facilities, told the committee that the sector overhaul being done by Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora could drive up the costs for New Zealanders needing aged care, and force others to live in ill-health at home.
“The snippets we have collected from this whiteboard session and that slide presentation indicate to us that Te Whatu Ora is creating a model that is being driven from a completely financial perspective. They have been instructed to find a way to release 200,000 hospital bed nights.”
Health NZ was working on flawed assumptions, Martin said, including that dementia needs will increase only mildly, and psychogeriatric need will remain flatline for the next 15 years.
That mistaken belief meant no thought was being given in the overhaul of aged care to the reality that no new psychogeriatric beds are currently being built, Martin said.
“Te Whatu Ora themselves cannot find current placement for New Zealanders who need this level of care. Individuals are being inappropriately placed with our members…putting at risk other residents and staff.
“Without a funding model or contract incentive that supports renovation of existing facilities and provides the capacity to take the risk to build new facilities, then current places are very likely to be closed or at least retracted due to age.”
Martin claimed that Health NZ was looking to lower asset and income thresholds to access residential care, which would mean New Zealanders would pay more. The level of frailty to enter rest home care could also be raised, she said.
“We are being told by Te Whatu Ora officials that they have a working assumption that approximately 20% of the current residential care population could be cared for at home.”
Martin asked the committee to consider asking the Health Minister to pause the aged care sector redesign, and recommend a ministerial taskforce or forum that includes sector representatives be created urgently to be part of any reforms.
She said decades of funding neglect had forced almost all providers into steps such as charging residents and their families accommodation premiums for so-called “premium rooms” (which can top $100 a day), on top of a 24-hour care rate.
“We should not forget that those New Zealanders in need, whose assets and income fall below the current thresholds, already pay all of their income and have to sell down their assets, before government providers will top up anything for their care.
“Everyone over the age of 30 and above will be part of this wave of elders that does not peak until 2078. One of the current trends, one in four of us will develop dementia. This is about them, and this is about us.”