Kaeo resthome Kauri Lodge will not close after all, thanks to a change of heart by Northland District Health Board. A consultants' review of the troubled Whangaroa Health Services Trust earlier this year recommended the 20-bed home at the former Kaeo Hospital be shut down, with the
area's elderly to be cared for at home or in resthomes elsewhere in Northland. The review also called for Whangaroa Health's two over
night beds to be closed. The plan attracted overwhelming opposition at a series of public meetings, however, and now the DHB has changed its mind. The change of heart was welcomed by resthome residents and trust chairman Brendan Tuohy, who said opposition to the proposal had been ``pretty much unanimous''. The
trustees and staff were grateful for the community's support in their efforts to save
Kauri Lodge, and the after-hours and acute care service.``That support certainly made the difference,'' Mr Tuohy said.``This decision also reflects well on the Northland District Health Board. They showed an impressive willingness to listen to their constituents and respond to our concerns.'' Those concerns included the challenges of
providing aged care in people's homes in a spread-out rural area, and the fact that
Whangaroa residents would have had to travel to Kawakawa or Kaitaia for after-hours medical help. Mr Tuohy said the trust recognised the health board's review was a response to valid concerns about health services at Whangaroa. Those issues had not gone away, and still had to be addressed, but the trust was striving to improve its service, efficiency, governance, management, transparency and accountability.
A letter to the trust from DHB chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain warned that the
trust's fundamental financial problem remained, namely that it was subsidising Kauri Lodge at the cost of other health services.``That has not changed. This is a serious
problem for your trust to resolve,'' he wrote. The trust has until June next year to clarify
the extent of that subsidy. Mr Tuohy put it at around $400,000, not the $700,000-$1 million estimated by consultants. One of the problems was Kauri Lodge's size, so the trust was looking at ways of expanding it to make it more economic. The number of residents had dropped recently because of uncertainty over the
home's future. Meanwhile, Kauri Lodge resident Bonnie Hoult, 88, was relieved that she would not have to move. ``I don't want to shift. I've been here 10 years and I can't find any complaint,'' she said. Her daughter Kaye Usmar said the staff
made Kauri Lodge special. ``They just love Mum to bits,'' she said. Dr Chamberlain said the two GP observation beds could remain in the interim, pending a review of quality and safety. The trust needed to improve its governance and management, however, both to address criticisms in a Ministry of Health audit and to restore public trust.
