Ryman CEO Gordon MacLeod addresses the meeting. Photo / Anne Gibson
Ryman CEO Gordon MacLeod addresses the meeting. Photo / Anne Gibson
Ryman Healthcare's annual meeting yesterday took questions on the standard of its hospital-level care, risks on the health and safety front, staff development, relationships with suppliers and community group liaison.
"I would invest in Ryman but I would not live there," one shareholder told the board of comments made toher by a nurse this week, a statement which left chief executive Gordon MacLeod "very, very saddened".
Although the shareholder said the comment was made to her "off the cuff", she thought it important to raise at the meeting at Orewa's Evelyn Page village and questioned how Ryman was caring for its hospital-level residents.
"She feels the quality of care is not as good as she has seen elsewhere," the shareholder told the board, which delivered a positive update on the business in a rapid expansion phase, planning 20 new villages.
"If the company is doing so well, there's a need to invest more in the hospital part. Please make sure you are taking care of the ones who really need the care," she said.
Investors looked forward to receiving dividends but Ryman needed to keep up standards in the hospitals it operates, she told the board chaired by David Kerr.
Ryman turned 20 this month. Photo / Anne Gibson
MacLeod said it was disappointing to hear those comment, telling how many husbands and wives lived in Ryman villages, sometimes with one partner in care while the other lived more independently.
"The husbands or wives in our care centres provide a greater level of supervision than any regulator," MacLeod said.
A Ryman spokesman today said: "Four speakers said our care was great" compared to one who quoted the nurse saying she would not live in a Ryman village.
John Boscowan, a shareholder, told yesterday's meeting that his mother was a resident of Ryman's Grace Joel village "and I can't speak more highly of the care that she's had. I'm very, very grateful to you."
Tony Mitchell, new Shareholders' Association chairman, asked the board how it was controlling risk on matters of staff, health and safety and suppliers relationships.
"You do have a lot of responsibility. There is pressure on boards these days not just to delegate to management," Mitchell said.
Claire Higgins, a Melbourne-based director and chairperson of Ryman's health and safety subcommittee, said that area was a key priority, the entity examined significant incidents and ran a safety forum attended by some board members. Directors also visited villages and construction sites and talked to people building the new villages, she said.
Kerr said staff training was encouraged via a new virtual initiative, the Ryman Academy and procurement arrangements with contractors and subcontractors was important. Ryman had long-standing relationships with many suppliers, he told the meeting.
MacLeod is Ryman's chief executive. Photo / Nick Reed
MacLeod said Ryman might drive a hard bargain from suppliers, but once a relationship was formed "we're probably the best payer". Directors did visit sites "and it's not just the royal walkaround", he said.
Iain Rea, chairman of the Devonport Peninsula Precincts Society and now standing for the Devonport Takapuna Local Board, asked what Ryman had learned after his community opposed aspects of the new William Sanders village in his street.
Agreement was only reached with Ryman after 421 public submissions were made and "considerable expense and effort" from the community, Rea said.
Kerr said Ryman had "learned to be - as I say to my grandchildren - using our listening ears". Ryman would consult with parties early and actively. Devonport had been a good learning experience, Kerr said, although he suspected not for Rea.
Rea told of expense and involvement in community opposition. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Rea also asked about Ryman's Wellington plans, opposed by Save the Karori Campus which said Ryman was "locked in the 1970s planning mode, epitomised by an institutional-like development at Bob Scott in Lower Hutt and Charles Fleming at Waikanae. These villages are on the fringe of communities and they seem to have avoided public interest in their design. In Karori, the village is in the centre of the suburb."
MacLeod said Ryman was actively engaging with the council, local community, Heritage New Zealand and politicians on Karori but needed to take account of Wellington's seismicity.
Warren Bell, a Ryman director, addressed the meeting on five key risk areas: health and safety, high-quality clinical care, staff, expansion and quality.
