Bombshell for elderly village residents

Bruce and Patti Anderson had hoped to spend the rest of their days at the Epsom retirement complex, but their plans have been thrown into doubt after the Northern Masonic Association Trust Board decided to sell the property. Picture / Paul Estcourt

When Bruce and Patti Anderson moved into the Roskill Masonic Village eight years ago, they thought they were secure for the rest of their lives.

Their roomy brick villa, with conservatory and garden, was brand-new. They had a licence to occupy it until they either chose to leave or died, with a fee for lawnmowing, rates and upkeep that is currently $85 a week.

If their health deteriorated, they had the option to move, first into the rest home just up the hill, and then if necessary into the hospital next door.

While they don't own the land, they still have a licence to occupy their villa, with a right to sell it at the same price they paid for it less $12,000 for refurbishment.

But suddenly, their future path into the rest home and the hospital has been thrown into doubt, with the whole complex up for auction.

"It's come as a bit of a bombshell," said Mr Anderson, who chairs the committee of licence-holders in the 25 villas and 18 newer apartments.

The village management deferred a regular two-monthly meeting with the licence-holders last month, but did not say why. "We thought it was because people were on holiday," Mr Anderson said.

Their first inkling of the truth was when the property manager delivered a letter to the villas on Monday announcing the auction. Yesterday the residents were in shock.

"I'm emotionally involved. I've been involved with this place since 1967," said one Freemason who said he would not be ready to talk about it for at least a few days.

Mr Anderson, also a Freemason, whose father helped to build the home and hospital in the late 1950s, said many of the older residents were "really upset".

"Getting up into your nineties you hope to be settled permanently," he said.

"It was somewhere I could put my mother when she was 83. She was here till she was 97."

The Northern Masonic Association Trust Board, which decided to sell the property, said it could not afford to expand and upgrade the complex because government subsidies had failed to keep up with inflation.

The Private Hospitals Association says the subsidy for residential care rose by only 8 per cent in the past 10 years. In the same period, consumer prices rose 21 per cent, with more cost increases expected as a flow-on from a 20 per cent pay rise for state hospital nurses agreed in December.

The aged care co-ordinator for the Nurses Organisation, Cee Payne-Harker, said the Government would need to lift its $890-million annual subsidy for elderly residential care by $200 million to meet current costs, plus a further $300 million to bring rest home pay into line with the new state hospital rates over the next few years.

She said registered nurses in rest homes now earned only $18-$21 an hour compared with the new hospital rate of $25. Caregivers earned only $10-$12 an hour compared with the new hospital nurse aid rates of $14-$16.

NZ Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson will lead a high-powered union delegation to put the case for rest home workers to new Associate Health Minister Pete Hodgson today.

Gillian Bremner of the NZ Council of Christian Social Services said the only people making money out of caring for the elderly were private companies that used profits from retirement villages to subsidise rest homes and hospitals.

A private company, Elrond Holdings, bought seven retirement complexes sold by Presbyterian Support (Northern) last year and continues to run them with the same staff.

But Mrs Bremner said private companies were unlikely to provide services to low-income and rural people.

Presbyterian Support (Northern) chief executive Winsome Stretch said she opposed extra subsidies for rest homes because elderly people preferred to be supported in their own homes.

Age Concern NZ chief executive Kerry Dalton agreed that funding should shift to home support.

Cost squeeze

* The Private Hospitals Association says it costs $805 a week, including capital costs, to care for a person in a rest home in Auckland.

* Elderly people with assets of less than $15,000, or couples with assets under $30,000, get their care fully paid by the Government at rates negotiated with each rest home.

* Those rates average only $648 a week in Auckland.

* Rest homes say they are therefore losing $157 a week on each resident.