Geoff Annals: Why caregivers are posting payslips to Parliament

Malo Suafa is a caregiver at Hillcrest Hospital in Mangere. She's been there for over 15 years. From 3pm until 11pm every working day, Malo cares for up to eight elderly people. Some are stroke victims, some suffer from Parkinson's disease and others have had heart failures.

The elderly in Malo's care are among the most vulnerable in our community. They are sick, frail, mostly incontinent and totally dependent on her to provide care while retaining their modesty and dignity. In return for her care Malo receives $12 an hour before tax.

Caregivers at Hillcrest are paid between $10.46 and $13.13. The rates are not low for the aged care sector where the average hourly rate for caregiving is $10.80.

Mata Ariki is another caregiver at Hillcrest. She's been there 13 years and as a senior caregiver has responsibility for supervising new caregivers. She is on the top rate paid to caregivers at Hillcrest of $13.13 an hour.

There are many aspects of the job Mata finds rewarding, but financially she sees no rewards at all. In fact, like most other caregivers she considers the pay for her emotionally and physically demanding job is simply an insult. "If I was to get a dollar for every time I had to clean up a mess I would be millionaire," she says.

Like other caregivers Mata thinks politicians should try looking after our older people to realistically and fairly assess how much caregivers should be paid for the job they do. A caregiver takes home as little as $345 for a 40-hour week. As Mata says: "Even the trolley-pushers in a supermarket get more than we do."

There are 25 caregivers employed at Hillcrest. This week they and other caregivers around the country are putting their payslips into an envelope addressed to Pete Hodgson, the Associate Minister of Health with responsibility for aged care.

The community should be appalled at caregivers' pay. It is a national disgrace. Everyone in the sector - consumers, providers and unions - agree the pay is too low. But for caregivers to get a rise, Government funding of the sector must dramatically increase and any increase in funding must go to caregivers' pay.

The sector is in a funding crisis. It requires an immediate increase of at least 5 per cent in Government funding just to meet today's costs. Prices paid by the Government for services are below the cost of providing those services and research shows that the sector is underfunded up to 25 per cent.

For hospitals, rest homes and dementia units that rely on Government funding, the subsidy paid by the Government for residents has not been adjusted in line with inflation for 10 years. Inflation has increased by over 21 per cent in the past 10 years. Yet, in those 10 years, funding for each hospital bed in aged care residence only increased by 8 per cent.

There is an urgent need to increase pay to recruit and retain staff. The combination of underfunding, increasing frailty of older people in care, shamefully low pay rates of staff and significant issues of training and understaffing has resulted in a growing staffing crisis.

Staff turnover in the sector is between 30 and 40 per cent. This means thousands of caregivers leave their positions each year and mainly untrained staff fill the vacancies.

Between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of care in aged care facilities is provided by caregivers. Today, residents in long-term care facilities have more complex health care needs, a greater level of dependency, and require significant support for daily living activities.

Workers are providing care for sicker and frailer residents so they require higher levels of skill and training to provide the necessary degree of care. Caregiving work is a skilled and highly responsible job.

The sector also faces a critical nursing shortage, putting an unacceptable level of stress and responsibility on to caregivers.

There is an urgent need to increase levels of training to improve quality and safety. Most providers of elderly care do not have adequately trained support workers. More than 50 per cent report that less than half their workforce is adequately trained.

Unions and providers are calling on the Government to address the funding issues in this year's Budget and to acknowledge aged care workers for the significant contribution they make to the healthcare system and to the quality of the lives of older New Zealanders. Their pay must fairly reflect the important work they do.

Funding levels must be based on fair and transparent pricing of all costs, compensation for inflation, and be sufficient to ensure quality care in the aged care sector. Surely we owe our elderly this.

* Geoff Annals is chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.