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It will likely complement Health New Zealand’s current review into aged care’s funding and service models, which seeks to establish a nationally consistent approach to providing care in the community and relieve the strain on hospitals.
New Zealand’s Aged Care Association welcomes Parliament’s inquiry as the country stares down an older and longer-living population, set to peak within the next three decades.
Health select committee chairman and National MP Sam Uffindell said the scope of the review would include the “current and future capacity of the sector to support those experiencing early onset neurological disorders like dementia and ensuring appropriate asset thresholds for sustainable service”.
The inquiry’s terms of reference hadn’t yet been set.
Aged Care Association chief executive and former NZ First MP Tracey Martin was supportive of any attempt to address inequities in aged care.
“From our perspective, we’re very happy to have any sort of a spotlight shone onto what is quite a dire situation for the aged in this country at the moment.
“Our hope would be that inquiry will inform, once again, the Parliament into what are the current shortfalls and future needs of this particularly vulnerable demographic of New Zealanders.”
Martin said the “wave” of seniors from the baby boomer generation was predicted to peak by 2048. However, how the country would address a larger elderly population who were living longer hadn’t been resolved.
“Multiple governments have kicked this can down the road and I don’t think there’s any more road left.”
Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin is welcoming Parliament's review. Photo / Mark Mitchell
About 900,000 New Zealanders were aged 65 or older. About 35,000 were in an aged care facility, while about 80,000 received home support services.
About 70,000 Kiwis lived with dementia but that number was set to triple by 2050.
In July last year, Health NZ began its review and through its first phase, it found aged care and community support services were underfunded, funding models were not fit for purpose, ethnic inequities existed within the industry, workforce pressures were significant and problems with services were worse in rural areas.
Phase two involved workshops and focus groups with providers and advocacy organisations to help inform better and more efficient pathways of care that didn’t overburden the hospital system.
Health NZ aging well director Andy Inder, who was leading the review, said phase two was expected to be completed by August and a business case would be put to Health NZ’s board in September.
However, Inder said changes had been made to how high-risk people were identified, meaning it was becoming easier to match sustainable services with people so they could live in their community instead of receiving more care in hospital.
Casey Costello is the Seniors Minister. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Martin said she had some concerns about the Health NZ review, namely the focus on keeping older people out of hospital “at all costs”.
“That’s actually not putting the person at the centre of what they need.”
She did acknowledge the review would identify how to break down silos so care could be provided more consistently.
Martin was set to meet with Seniors Minister Casey Costello next week and would discuss how the sector was funded, using Australia’s recent change to asset and means testing care provision as an example of where New Zealand could look for guidance.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
