Rotorua echoes calls for urgent action after In Safe Hands aged care report

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Rotorua representatives for people in aged care say a damning report looking at the sector has come as no surprise.The report, In Safe Hands, released yesterday by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and E tū, stated elderly living in rest homes were getting about six minutes of care an hour and warned some residents were dying as a result.

The research surveyed 1194 respondents across the country, including more than 600 registered nurses, nearly 60 enrolled nurses, more than 450 caregivers and nearly 20 facility and clinical managers.

It reported that patients had been trying to ration their own care to help overworked staff and many staff believed they could not offer safe, quality care to residents because there were not enough people rostered on.

The unions held a summit in Wellington yesterdaycalling for an updated Government review into aged-care staffing standards - and for new and better standards to be made mandatory.

The New Zealand Aged Care Association represents employers of aged care workers.

Chief executive Simon Wallace told the Rotorua Daily Post the report did not give an accurate depiction of the sector.

Simon Wallace, chief executive of the New Zealand Aged Care Association. Photo / File

He said higher staff ratios were not the answer.

"I would describe that as a blunt tool. What is important is having staff that are skilled and experienced, and have the aptitude for the work environment."

He said one of the biggest issues was the loss of 500 to 600 registered nurses who went to DHBs in the last six months, after their pay deal with the Government last August.

"In losing those nurses we have also lost their skills and experience that our employers have invested in over a long period of time. We need to sit down with the Government and unions for a solution in the long-term."

Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O'Rourke said the Safe Hands report's findings were no surprise, but there were no simple solutions.

Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O'Rourke. Photo / File

"My question really is where are the workers going to come from? We have to start planning now. We are not rewarding the workers properly, and it's all very well to set minimum staffing targets but we just don't have enough people coming into the profession for that."

O'Rourke said in his opinion, rest home staff were not as thinly spread in the Rotorua area as they were in larger centres.

"Only a small number of people come to us to report bad treatment of family members."

Chris Wingate's mother Joan Petersen spent most of her life in Rotorua but had palliative care in the Manawatu region.

Graeme and Joan Petersen. Photo / Supplied

He wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate aged care in New Zealand.

"Elderly care seems have been turned into a cash flow business to make money. It has turned away from prioritising the care of the elderly. There's always a staff shortage."

Wingate said the Safe Hands report's findings reflected his mother's aged care experience.

"Often the staff are listening to residents' and families' concerns but the solutions are not being actioned by the decision-makers with money in their pockets.

"I feel if we don't get this matter sorted out right now it's going to just be a free for all for business opportunities.

"It's not how we want our lives to end. If we don't fix it now we only have ourselves to blame."

Joan Petersen was a nurse as a young woman. Photo / Supplied

He said many elderly people didn't have family members speaking out for them.

"This issue has been hanging in silence for far too long... It's tragic."

Bay of Plenty woman Jane, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, said her mother had been in two Bay of Plenty rest homes, and another in Waikato, in the past 10 years.

She felt staff shortages were the main problem.

"It's the overload of work. If someone is sick there's no backup. These carers end up exhausted."

Jane said family members often neglected their own responsibility to help care for loved ones, and communicate their needs to staff.

"Many people put their elders in a home and that's it, they walk away... I see people month after month at my mum's home who have no visitors, and their family live locally. It's really sad."

She said the quality of aged care in New Zealand should be a concern for all of us.

"None of us get out of here alive."