NZNO Charter Misses The Point

Released 28/09/2011 11:59am (8 months ago)
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Nurses Organisation Misses the Point on Aged Care

The New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation has missed the point in their “Aged Care Charter” they are to present to Parliament tomorrow.

The Nurses’ union charter ignores the major crisis facing the aged care sector – an imminent shortage of beds and an aging population – and instead presents ideas that will not improve the level of care for the elderly nor address the key issues facing this industry.

The New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA), says the critical issues facing the sector were set out in a joint review carried out by the NZACA and District Health Boards in September 2010.

The findings of the 2010 review have been ignored by the Nurses’ union, the Chief Executive of the NZACA, Martin Taylor, said today.

“The reality is that future governments will have to allocate millions of dollars to encourage private sector investors to build modern new facilities and increase the number of beds in order to meet the demand from a rapidly aging population,” Mr Taylor said.

“That is the critical issue currently facing New Zealand as set out in the Aged Residential Care Review released last year, not the out-dated proposals put forward by the Nurses’ union.”

“The union is promoting policies which have failed and will continue to fail, such as the call for mandatory staffing ratios. The nurses have forgotten that the Labour Government in 2003 removed mandatory staffing ratios with the introduction of the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act because there was and remains no evidence that staffing ratios result in better care.”

Mandatory staffing ratios ignore the reality that every rest home has a different layout, a different mix of residents with a different mix of care needs.  One size does not fit all. Their approach is simplistic and would remove the constant re-evaluation of staffing levels that currently go on to ensure individual rest homes’ needs are catered for.

The nurses are also calling for a “nationally recognised training and education programme” but in doing so they ignore the reality that the Aged Residential Care Contract has mandatory education requirements and the sector currently has level 2, 3 and 4 NZQA recognised training programmes.

“The nurses’ union continues to claim there is no training in the sector, despite knowing that they are misleading the public. They also know the current contractual obligations have been in place for a decade and that the current NZQA training programs have the support of both main political parties,” Mr Taylor added.

The New Zealand Aged Care Association says the Nurses union must be supportive of the need for pay parity between the public and the private health sectors. “While our members support being funded at a higher level so they can pay higher wages, it is interesting to note that when Labour was in government and running billion-dollar surpluses, they refused to support pay parity.”

It is unlikely that any government will do this when it is running billion-dollar deficits, but this would be a call that the NZACA and the Nurses union should agree on,” Mr Taylor said.

For more information contact Martin Taylor on 0274535348

Questions and answers

1. How much would pay parity cost?

Some where between $150 - $220 million per year based on:

• Using the Aged Residential Care Review 2010 low demand scenario i.e. approximately 12,000 FTE caregivers now and 18,000 FTE caregivers in 2026.
• Increasing rates from 2009 average of $14.19 per hour to DHB rate for 2009 healthcare assistants average steps 2 and 3 around $17.58.
• Paying same weekend, stat and night allowance as DHBs

1. 2.      What are the differences between residential care facilities, private hospitals and retirement villages?

Residential care facilities provide 24 hour care 7 days a week and residents are either subsidised or private. To get a bed in a facility residents have to be assessed as requiring 24 hour care. The total cost of for rest home level care is about $800 per week.

Private geriatric hospitals are usually part of residential care facilities and provide hospital level care to residents who are sick or dying.  The cost of providing hospital level services is about $1,260 per week.

Retirement Villages sell independent living apartments to the elderly. That apartment is usually part of a complex that provides certain services such as home support and recreational facilities for a weekly fee.

1. 3.      How many residential care facilities and geriatric hospitals are there?

Around 700 residential care facilities are spread around New Zealand

1. 4.      How many people are in long term residential care?

At any one time, there are around 31,400 beds available for residential aged care, but over a year 42,000 elderly receive care in residential care facilities. 

1. 5.      How old are people who go into residential care?

The average age to enter a residential care facility is about 85. Ten years ago the average age was around 75.

1. 6.      Are more people requiring residential care?

Yes, this number is steadily increasing, and will continue to do so. The number of people who will require residential care is going to increase to 38,000 by 2016 and up to 52,000 by 2026.

ENDS

CONTACT:

NZ Aged Care Association
Ph: +64(27)4535348
Email: martin@nzaca.org.nz

View all NZ Aged Care Association releases at: http://spinitwide.com/latest-releases/nz-aged-care-association

Distributed by http://spinitwide.com on behalf of NZ Aged Care Association