Rest home to close after failing standards

PacifiCare Rest Home and Hospital in Mangere is to close at the end of January. Photo / The Aucklander

A rest home and hospital for the aged in South Auckland will close next month after it failed to meet standards imposed by health authorities.

The PacifiCare Rest Home Hospital, also known as the Blue Dove, in Mangere would close on January 31 after several months of auditing by the Counties Manukau District Health Board.

The hospital was taken over earlier this year by Guardian Trust and the closure was announced last night by the trust and the DHB.

The DHB said the decision to close was made after intensive monitoring of the facility

It was understood there were concerns about health care, including the management of the medication of patients.

The hospital had beds for 81 patients and the rest home had beds for 24 residents.

The DHB and Guardian Trust said in a joint statement it was not possible to maintain appropriate provision of care at the facility.

"Both parties are working together to ensure the safe and continued provision of care to residents through to the end of January and will be working with residents and their families to identify new accommodation."

It said many residents had been there for several years and would be distressed at news it was to close.

Guardian Trust said it had been acting as mortgagee in possession of the PacifiCare facility and was seeking the sale of the business, in its capacity as trustee for a private family trust (the Primero Trust).

The New Zealand Aged Care Association said when the facility changed hands recently it failed to maintain its management standards.

Aged Care Association chief executive Martin Taylor said the hospital and rest home had a long history of difficulty in meeting standards.

"It is a lack of management ability," he said.

The were 65 residents at the facility, most of them rest home and hospital residents funded under an aged residential care agreement with the DHB. There were also several young people with disabilities living there. They were funded by the Ministry of Health.

- NZPA