Whanganui families and carers frustrated over HealthCare NZ changes

Whanganui families have been expressing their concerns about inadequate home support services on social media. Photo /rf123

Families of Whanganui people needing care and support say patients have been waiting hours, sometimes days, for carers to arrive.

When family members have called HealthCare NZ to complain about the situation they have waited for up to an hour for someone to answer the phone.

Now Healthcare NZ says it is working to address the concerns and says wait times are improving.

Concerns have been aired on social media following the company's centralisation of its service coordination with one person saying their mum did not have anyone visit for two nights.

"When I told them she had no support the previous night they asked why she didn't phone the 0800 number. I told them she didn't want to wait at least 30mins to get through."

Another said: "The waiting time for call answer is unacceptable, and emails just go unanswered".

A client posted that they missed their afternoon shower.

"They knew my support worker was off and didn't replace her. When I finally got through to them via the phone they did offer to send someone, but it was too late in the day for me."

Others were not so concerned.

"So far Healthcare [NZ] have been pretty good for us especially our permanent - even with the inexplicable shift to Auckland."

Whanganui District Health Board has also confirmed it has received complaints from both DHB staff and patients while Age Concern Whanganui manager Michelle Malcolm said the shortcomings in the service had come to her attention as well.

"When I called them I had a very long wait for someone to answer the phone," she said.

"The feedback I'm hearing is that HealthCare NZ clients are not notified when their regular carers are unavailable and having a stranger turn up to give you a shower is very distressing."

In February this year, HealthCare NZ chief executive Vanessa Dudley announced a proposal that would see some roles "disestablished, some realigned, and some new roles established".

Dudley told the Chronicle this week the company was working hard to address concerns and gave her assurance that wait times were improving.

"There has also been feedback from both staff, clients and their whānau and this feedback is informing the changes and improvements and we are being agile in our approach as necessary," Dudley said.

"We sincerely apologise for any shortfalls people have experienced over this period and assure our clients, their families, and our own staff that we are addressing current concerns."

The PSA union, which represents a number of HealthCare NZ employees, believes the problems are due to job cuts.

PSA national organiser Michael Woodcock said union members had warned the company these problems would occur.

"HealthCare NZ rejected pleas and protests from staff, clients and their families, and chose instead to slash over 100 coordinator jobs up and down New Zealand," he said.

"Those were local people who spent years building relationships of trust with their local clients, and PSA members said all along it would never work if you replaced them with call centres."

A Whanganui HealthCare NZ home care worker, who did not want to be identified, said there have been communication problems since jobs had been cut.

The worker said Whanganui had enough hands-on staff but the delays experienced by clients were down to poor coordination.

"We love our jobs and we work our butts off for our clients," she said.

"We have our regular clients and manage our timetables well but during the Covid-19 lockdown stage some workers had to stand down and everything changed."

Regional coordination staff were due to lose their jobs on June 23 however the worker said staff understood that would be delayed due to pandemic restrictions.

"When the move to level one was in place by that date they went ahead and did it anyway and things have been shambolic ever since," the worker said.

"The people on the phone have no knowledge of our clients and they don't know Whanganui so they have no idea how long it will take us to travel from one place to another."

Dudley said the company was retaining its national network of local offices, including the one in Whanganui while centralising its national administration and service co-ordination functions through centres in Auckland and Dunedin.

The union supporting HealthCare NZ staff in Whanganui say job cuts have led to distressing wait times for clients. Photo / File

Woodcock said the PSA recognised that underfunding of the home care sector was a problem.

"The entire home care and support sector suffers from systemic underfunding and our fragmented health system. We urge the Ministry of Health, ACC and the various DHBs to align their approaches and provide the resources needed to care for elderly, ill and vulnerable New Zealanders," he said.

A Whanganui DHB spokesman said Access Ability [an NGO that allocates and co-ordinates support services for the disabled, elderly etc in Whanganui] informed Whanganui DHB on Thursday there were concerns being expressed by clients and whānau on aspects of HealthCare NZ service delivery.

"On Friday, [July 17] DHB clinical manager of social workers, Suzanne Crocker, has advised she has also received complaints from both DHB staff and patients.

"In the first instance, the expectation is that complaints are taken up directly with the provider and this has been occurring," the spokesman said.

"Whanganui DHB assures the community that it takes issues with provider performance very seriously."

A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said Healthcare NZ and other home and community support services (HCSS) are accountable to District Health Boards (DHBs) and the Disability directorate for their performance under service contracts.

"HealthCare NZ, like some other providers, is a large organisation providing services across a number of regions. Introducing changes to a complex operating model such as this may result in personnel or service reconfigurations. We will continue to monitor the service changes being introduced by Healthcare NZ," she said.

The spokeswoman said the Ministry had been working with DHBs and the HCSS sector to improve performance in this sector, including the development of a national framework which was expected to be published shortly.