Glenwood Hospital dismisses closure rumours

GLENWOOD Hospital has put to bed fears that it may be closing its doors.
Shareholder Heaton Haglund said yesterday he was aware there was talk around town that the hospital was being forced out of business because of a paucity of aged care funding, but this was not the case.
"We are not closing," Mr Haglund said.
"But like all others in the aged-care business we are suffering because of the chronic under-funding for caring for the elderly, that has forced some homes further north to close."
Mr Haglund said Glenwood was better placed than some other homes because of diversification.
"We have a well-trained palliative care unit and do outwork with ACC patients in the community so we are not completely reliant on the rest home business."
Glenwood manager Anne Savage said the hospital would " continue to trade as usual" despite the gross under-funding causing a crisis in the industry.
She said many meetings have been held with staff and health professionals to help Glenwood's struggle to survive.
Mrs Savage said she has had meetings with the Wairarapa District Health Board, Masterton Mayor Bob Francis and Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer.
"My question to the Government is where will you house the elderly in our care if residential care facilities in Wairarapa fall over."
Mrs Savage said the aged car system was designed in the early 1990s when only 6 per cent of the population was older than 65.
"Soon a quarter of New Zealand's population will be in that age group."
She said there is no way the over-regulated and under-funded system, as it is, can hope to meet the growing demand.
"Government needs to make aged care reform a high priority."
Mrs Savage said places like Glenwood were unable to compete with the public sector wage increases of 40 per cent for nurses.
"This sends a wrong message to nurses who have spent years upgrading their education to raise the profile of aged care practice and delivery of care."
She said nurses wanted aged care to be recognised as a specialty practice and not as the "dregs of nursing and our patients being treated as the dregs of our community".
Mrs Savage said the 40-bed model does not sit with aged care in Wairarapa with its total population of 40,000.
"Most aged care facilities are far smaller than 40 beds."
"We are also a lower socio-economic area where the average house is $150,000, so there are more and more elderly people subsidised in this region."
Apart from a serious injection of government funding Mrs Savage said the aged care industry needed a reduction in stifling "red tape", more choice and less complexity in the residential system and a realistic indexation system to ensure funding keeps pace with the cost of providing quality care.