Waiatarua Mercy Parklands rest home losing $100,000 a month set to close

Management of a 97-bed Auckland Catholic rest home has announced it will close in three months, meaning residents must find alternative care.

Relatives have today received a notice saying Waiatarua Mercy Parklands will close, leaving them shocked and upset.

The Herald reported this month how the rest home was losing $100,000 a month and closure was being considered.

Ann Coughlan and the Mercy management team sent out the closure notice just after midday today.

"It is with incredible sadness that I announce that after nearly 40 years of operation in the Ellerslie area, Mercy Parklands will close in its entirety, which will be effective in three months from today.

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"This is a very sad day for our residents, their whanau and families, our staff and everyone in our community who has been involved in our operations over the decades appreciate this will come as a great shock and that it is a blow to the community – again, I am very sorry for that," Coughlan wrote to relatives.

Relatives had hoped the rest home could remain open and said they had raised $60,000, with commitments of a further $30,000 for that to occur.

But board chairman Arthur Morris said earlier this month the rest home was losing $100,000 a month and was unlikely to be able to remain open.

Coughlan said it would only stay open for three months "to facilitate the careful and considered reaccommodation of our residents and redeployment of staff".

Families would be assisted in reaccommodating relatives through the health system and local needs assessment and service co-ordination organisation.

Waiatarua Mercy Parklands at 12 Umere Crescent, Ellerslie. Photo / Alex Burton

Residents and families would not be left alone, Coughlan said, referring to the possibility of some people perhaps wanting to leave Auckland.

Coughlan and the Mercy team sincerely apologised for the shock of the announcement and closure was certainly not the outcome that Mercy Parklands wanted, she said.

"This difficult and painful decision means closure to a story to care for the most vulnerable in our society. We can be proud of the dedicated care we have been providing to the elderly in need and for accepting many people for whom no other options existed," she wrote.

Relatives told the Herald a meeting was held last Thursday where closure was discussed at length.

"We were initially told in September that the reasons for closing were a lack of available staff with recruitment delayed due to Covid and the slow process by immigration in issuing visas to the prospective staff. As a result of these delays, beds had closed along with the income that was required for Mercy Parklands to cover costs," a relative told the Herald.

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Yet between the first closure announcement a month ago and last Thursday's meeting, families had raised $60,000 in donations with a further $30,000 in pledges to keep the rest home open, the relative said.

Initially, staffing issues were cited but last week those at the meeting heard that the rest home was not fit for purpose, that renovations were required for contemporary care to be provided and that this would have a significant additional cost.

"This was the first mention of this to families. It was certainly not visible to the families present at the meeting that this was required with families, unanimous in their praise of the current care, in the existing facilities, which their loved ones are receiving. It was also stated that 'breaking even' is not enough - the facility needs to make a profit," the relative complained.

Pre-Covid, Mercy Parklands had operated in a financially viable way. Now, there is now a short-term problem of availability of staff which could be addressed given sufficient time, and additional funding which the families want to look at raising, without the facility having to close, that person said.

Morris said only around 72 patients were at the rest home because staffing levels had dropped so much.

Residents must find alternative care within three months. Photo / supplied

The relative said the closure would result in all those private hospital-level patients, many with dementia, having to find alternative local accommodation in the lead-up to Christmas, in an already critically stressed aged-care sector.

The closure put an enormous emotional and physical cost on residents, staff and the health system, that person said.

The relative hoped that by speaking to the Herald, the board might change its mind.

Finding alternative accommodation would be a huge problem.

"There are already patients in Auckland City Hospital that are waiting for a bed to become available in a private hospital so that they can be discharged. Now, with an added 72 patients requiring a private hospital level of care bed, the pressure on the system increases," the relative said after getting the closure notice.

“The values of our society are challenged when we fail to care for our most vulnerable - our elderly,” that person said.