Probe into disgraced councillor's role in resthome

Health chiefs have called an urgent meeting with managers of an Auckland resthome to clarify who is running the facility, which receives more than $3 million in public money a year.

The Manukau District Health Board will ask questions over the role of James Papali'i, a disgraced former councillor convicted of misusing public money, and the Mangere Community Hub, a trust linked to Papali'i and now in liquidation, owing $1 million in unpaid tax.

Board service integration manager Sam Cliffe said she had been unaware of Papali'i and the Mangere Community Hub's involvement.

She had requested "as a matter of some urgency" a meeting with Guardian Trust, which has run the resthome and hospital since 2007.

Guardian Trust took over as mortgagee in possession after previous managers, PacifiCare Trust, got into financial strife.

The company now holds PacifiCare's contracts for aged care and mental health, worth more than $3 million a year.

Cliffe said there had been concerns about patient care under PacifiCare, but she was comfortable with Guardian Trust's management.

"We've had concerns in the past and we will continue to monitor them closely."

Papali'i was convicted in 2006 for theft and forgery in his role as trustee of the Manukau Outrigger Canoeing Whare Nui Trust.

He did not return calls and Guardian Trust would not comment on his involvement. In a statement, the company said an agreement with Mangere Community Hub to provide staffing services ended in November last year.

Sensitivities around the current mortgagee sale prevented any further comment. The hospital is now called Blue Dove Health, a name linked to Destiny Church's urban Maori authority, Te Oranga Ake.

Authority manager Raewyn Bhana said staff had worked at the hospital for about four months while considering buying the hospital, but had now cut all ties.

"We were looking at purchasing it, it wasn't viable, so we were out," she said.

The name Blue Dove would be removed from the authority's website.

The resthome has had a controversial past and gone through several name changes. In 2004, owners Ian and Norma Anderson faced a Securities Commission investigation over claims of more than 300 per cent fee hikes at the resthome, then called Culverden Care and Hospital.

Two years later Culverden Group's certification was revoked by the Ministry of Health because of substandard care. The ministry's report found patients at the centre, then called Pasifika Centre and Hospital, may have died prematurely as a result of delayed or poor care.

PacifiCare Trust took over the facility in August 2006, but got into financial difficulty a year later.

Concerns about standards of care resulted in the Manukau District Health Board putting a moratorium on patients being referred to the facility until standards improved. It was lifted when Guardian Trust took over.