We at Kerikeri Retirement Village were absolutely thrilled to see the launch recently of a hard-hitting campaign by the Aged Care Association New Zealand, drawing attention to a lack of government funding that is on the verge of crippling the New Zealand aged care sector.
The ‘Domino Effect’ campaign features aged care beds crashing down like dominos on everyday Kiwis, ramming home the message that aged care providers are removing care bed capacity because they can’t afford to keep those beds occupied – which means elderly end up in hospital beds and when you need one you might not be able to get in.
“It is crucial that Kiwis take note, because the aged care crisis affects us all,” the NZACA says of its campaign. “For those working in the sector and families who have loved ones requiring residential aged care, the worsening issues come as no surprise. But many New Zealanders will be unaware...”They’re correct. The worsening situation should absolutely come as no surprise. I took a look back at when we first raised the issue via our newspaper column and it was as far back as October 2019. And even then it was a fairly well-developed threat.
Many years ago this country took the decision that it would ‘outsource’ bed-based care for the elderly to aged care providers. The entity that is now Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ would pay aged care providers a subsidy for every occupied bed.
Fine in concept, perhaps. But the problem is that the subsidy has failed to keep up with the cost of providing that service. Over time, the government’s approach to its aged care responsibilities has effectively changed from outsourcing to opting out. It is no longer honouring its side of the bargain.
To add insult to injury, government pay increases for nursing staff have not been fully extended to those in the aged care sector – so not only must we cope with a funding crisis, we also face a skills shortage as qualified staff opt to follow the money.
The aged care sector has struggled tirelessly to fill the funding gap but providers are now at breaking point. They can’t afford to keep beds open. Take us for example. We are able to prop up our care facility through our retirement village occupational right agreement sales, however this isn’t sustainable. In order to meet the government funding shortfall we would need to rebuild our care facility and have only premium rooms, impacting elderly on fixed incomes who couldn’t afford this. It is a wicked problem.
Back in 2019 we suggested that Health NZ needed to look at some ‘outside the box’ funding solutions. One potential solution we suggested was a series of ‘construction partnerships’ between government and aged care providers. Government would fund construction, with aged care providers like ourselves providing the actual service. In other words: “you build it, we’ll run it”.
There will be other solutions out there. But it’s way past time for Health NZ and Wellington bureaucrats to ‘pull finger’ and find one that works. Because the dominoes are already falling.
