Under-fire rest home to appeal closure plan

The Pasifika Centre & Hospital in Mangere, South Auckland. Picture / Kenny Rodger

The owners of a south Auckland rest home which the Ministry of Health wants to close down are to appeal the decision.

The ministry yesterday said the Pasifika Centre and Hospital in Mangere, run by Culverden Group, failed to meet standards of reasonable care following three inspections in fifteen months.

Culverden Group spokeswoman Glenda Hughes said the directors, Norma and Ian Anderson, intended to appeal.

"We were told on Friday that the ministry agreed to an independent audit, and then suddenly yesterday afternoon they said they were closing it down," Ms Hughes told NZPA.

The rest home was hauled up in a December 2004 inspection following two complaints of inadequate care.

The inspection listed 101 problems which needed correcting. It said the centre did not have adequate registered nurse input and came up short on several care and reporting standards.

Several clients in pain had inadequate or no pain management strategies in place, the 2004 inspection found.

Ms Hughes said the issues regarding inadequate care had been addressed with the exception of finding enough professional nurses.

"There's a shortage of registered nurses and the recent pay rises for hospital nurses means we have to pay more for them, but there's been no increased subsidy for rest homes," she said.

"Other than that, the residents all tell us the standard of care is fine. A lot of the standards which the ministry is talking about are paper-based standards."

A second unannounced inspection in June 2005 found 41 of the corrective actions had been implemented but 58 had not been dealt with, with two unable to be assessed.

The third inspection, in February this year, "was unable to substantiate the implementation of any significant improvements in meeting the requirements of the act".

Deputy director-general of health Dr Colin Feek said the rest home still didn't have enough input from health professionals, and had a lack of support for caregivers, inadequate evidence of planning and delivery of care and insufficient evidence of timely medical intervention, especially in emergencies.

Ms Hughes said the rest home's cause had not been helped by difficulties with a manager appointed in December 2005 who had since been suspended.

The centre has been administered by a temporary manager appointed by the Ministry of Health and the Counties Manukau District Health Board since March 7 to assess the level of care and the centre's compliance with standards.

Director General of Health Dr Karen Poutasi told Culverden she was considering cancelling its certification. Culverden Group Ltd sought an extension to the timeframe in which to respond and sent a 48-page response.

Another inspection has taken place since then and while some issues had been remedied, the ministry said it was not confident in the absence of a temporary manager that these changes would continue.

"The ministry's preference would have been to see Culverden Group Ltd meet the standards, enabling the 101 residents to remain at the centre and hospital, but in the current circumstances the ministry believes that is not possible," Dr Feek said.

Ms Hughes said the rest home was more than happy to work with the temporary manager until somebody all parties were happy with could be employed.

- NZPA