The Government is facing calls to reform the aged care sector. Photo file
The Government is facing calls to reform the aged care sector. Photo file
New Zealanders face delays in getting into a rest home depending on their district health board – with the difference in wait time up to seven months, a new report claims.
Health Minister David Clark will consider the report, but also says it has been completed for a sector lobby group "so I expect it will reflect their interests".
The NZ Aged Care Association has today released the report based on more than 300,000 clinical assessments completed over the past three years.
It says the analysis reveals "postcode healthcare", with more than half of the country's DHBs delaying access to rest homes once a person is assessed as needing such care.
"This can have serious consequences for their health," said Simon Wallace, chief executive of the association, which represents about 90 per cent of rest homes and aged care facilities.
"The analysis clearly shows the significant benefits of aged residential care for an older person's health and well-being. It also shows that many elderly people are missing out on improved or stable health because of where they live.
"Postcode healthcare is simply not acceptable in New Zealand."
About 36,000 people are in aged-care facilities. The association said its analysis of clinical assessments showed rest-home care brought a range of health benefits over a six-month period after entering care.
Of those who reported feeling lonely at the time of their final home care assessment, 82 per cent reported no longer feeling lonely after around six months of aged care. Sixty-three per cent had better pain levels, and 60 per cent had an improvement in their risk of developing pressure ulcers.
Simon Wallace, chief executive of the NZ Aged Care Association. Bay of Plenty Times Photograph by George Novak
Wallace said the association wanted to work with the Government to make sure that as New Zealand's population aged there was a policy and funding framework that let people access aged care when needed, no matter where they lived.
"If an older person lives in the Hawke's Bay DHB region, for example, and is at the point they are needing aged residential care, they will wait on average seven months longer to access that care, than someone who lives in neighbouring MidCentral DHB."
The report looked at the median length of time it took for a person to move into aged care after hitting a certain priority level in their home care assessment.
Nationally, the median length of time in 2016/17 was 4 months. It was 9.7 months in Hawke's Bay DHB's catchment, 7.5 months in the Bay of Plenty, 4.1 months in Auckland, 3.3 months in Waikato, 2.5 months in Northland and 2.1 months in Waitemata DHB.
The Aged Care Association said it appeared only half of DHBs are using interRAI data in a systemic way in their decision processes, with some apparently giving it little weight.
Health Minister David Clark said in a statement the report was received by the Ministry of Health today, and he had not yet received advice on it. He pointed out it was carried out by a lobby group.
"I will look at it carefully once I receive it and will also seek advice from the Ministry of Health.
"It's a report by a sector lobby group so I expect it will reflect their interests, and I understand it hasn't been peer-reviewed or opened to a wider review process."
Clark said the challenging task for Government was to balance the industry desire to have more people in aged care with making sure there was adequate care, and giving support to people who want to live at home for longer.
"I would expect to have a good degree of regional variation in the system because there are different models around the country, which are responding to different local populations. Some populations will want to have their families staying at home longer and some populations will want aged care in a residential setting."
Roy Reid, chair of Grey Power Federation, said in a forward to the report that the analysis of the "interRAI" clinical assessment data raised serious questions.
"A generation of policy makers have developed care for the elderly based on the assumption that we are 'better off' in our own homes … we cannot assume that elderly people have family or help nearby…my nearest child, for example, lives seven hours away and is not able to just pop in if there's a problem."
Today's report comes after a Weekend Herald investigation found a third of the country's 651 aged care facilities have had recent shortcomings related to resident care.
Consumer and health advocates point the finger at years of Government inaction, and are pressing Health Minister David Clark to act, including making voluntary care guidelines mandatory.
Last year there were about 83,000 New Zealanders aged 85 or older. That population is forecast to be 240,000 to 280,000 by 2043, and between 333,000 and 467,000 by 2068.
The NZ Aged Care Association's report looked at people admitted to rest homes and aged-care facilities in 2016/17, and who had previously been assessed at a certain priority level or above in their last home care assessment. By DHB, the median months since meeting that priority and entering aged residential care were:
