A Reefton community leader says the new government should be asked to hand the town’s rest home and GP practice back to the community.
The empty hospital-level care facility, Ziman House, is one of the few in New Zealand owned by Te Whatu Ora.
It closed suddenly nearly two years ago amid a local outcry with the then West Coast District Health Board citing staff shortages and Covid risks.
Te Whatu Ora also owns the attached GP practice and staffs it with locums.
Graeme Neylon, a long-serving Buller District councillor, says the hospital was originally built with funds from mining companies and run by the community.
“Ever since the government took over we’ve lost services bit by bit till now it’s closed and I think with the change of government the time is right to see if we could or should take it back and do it ourselves,” Neylon says.
Neylon was one of about 30 people at a meeting called on December 8 by Reefton’s Health Action group to grill West Coast health officials over their efforts to recruit nurses and reopen the aged-care unit.
Options could include setting up a local community trust or coming under the wing of an existing aged-care trust such as Westport’s O’Conor Home, Neylon says.
Tough sector
But anyone thinking of entering the aged-care industry is up against formidable challenges, according to insiders.
Rhonda Sherriff, who analysed the closure of Ziman House for Health West Coast and listed a number of DHB failings, has worked in aged care for 25 years as a registered nurse, manager, facility owner and as clinical adviser to the Aged Care Association.
She warns the entire sector is on the point of collapse because of a nurse shortage and years of underfunding.
“The costs are phenomenal and the gap between what private providers can pay and what public hospitals pay for registered nurses is continually widening.”
Despite a recent pay round to improve parity for nurses in aged care, nurses can still earn as much as $15,000 more in the public sector, Sherriff says.
“The hospitals pay penal rates we can’t afford and many of the overseas nurses we recruit are supporting families back in their home countries on top of costs here.
“They take the first opportunity they can get to work in the public-health system and you can’t really blame them.”
Overseas nurses make up 80 percent of the workforce in many places and must pass NZ Nursing Council courses to practise, nursing director Holly Mason told the Reefton meeting.
And the manager of O’Conor Home, Susan Watson, says recruiting and retaining them is a torturous business.
“You can spend hours on the phone interviewing in the small hours and find they’ve applied for 40 other jobs.”
O’Conor Home takes on overseas nurses as caregivers until they qualify. It has employed an English teacher to help them pass their exams, a process that can take two years, Watson says.
“Then you can find as soon as they qualify they’re off to a better-paid job in a hospital.”
Sherriff says aged-care companies and trusts have about 40,000 beds but many have closed wards or entire facilities because they can’t staff them.
And the crisis is unfolding on a daily basis.
“We’ve just had a workshop on this in Canterbury; when you can’t find places in care homes or find ways to support the frail elderly at home, a lot more end up in hospitals and they can’t discharge them.”
Size matters
Reefton’s much-loved rest home would also face additional challenges as a private facility because of its size, Sherriff cautions.
“It has only 10 beds. The government subsidy is about $1400 per resident a week so you would need to do your sums very carefully and make sure you had substantial cash reserves.
”Many such facilities are now running at a loss.”
The industry considers an aged-care facility needs a minimum of 56 beds to be financially viable, Sherriff says.
It’s a point Health West Coast operations manager Phil Wheble has touched on in the past.
To meet government standards, Ziman House would need six registered nurses for its 10 residents to cover shifts, weekends, holidays and sick leave.
But those six nurses would also be enough to cover a home with 60 residents.
Despite that, Health West Coast is committed to reopening Ziman House, Wheble told the meeting.
He was challenged by an attendee to say how he would avoid the management mistakes that led to its closure when the staff involved had not been made redundant.
(Sherriff reported unaddressed bullying complaints from staff and an absence of reporting systems and auditing considered standard in the industry.)
“We had external reports done because we wanted to know what were the failures that led to us having to close the facility down.
“We know we need a robust system – the right number of people with the right skills – this time,” Wheble says.
But things are looking up: nursing vacancies on the Coast have dropped from 60 to 34 in the past year, he says.
And a West Coast-led recruiting team is now focused on attracting and retaining overseas nurses for aged-care vacancies including Reefton’s
Despite the reassurances, Neylon advocates approaching the Minister of Health about the possibility of wresting Ziman House from the Government’s grip.
The Inangahua Community Board was rebuffed by the Labour government when it asked the question last year but will try again with new minister Shane Reti, he says.
“They promised us in February 2022 Ziman would reopen in six months and we’re still waiting.
“Now they’re saying they’re still committed but how reliable is that?
“I think we should at least investigate the DIY option.”
Made with the support of the Public Interest Journalism Fund
