The Front Page podcast: 'Rotten' care puts elderly lives at risk, breast cancer patients deliver impassioned plea

Photo / 123rf

Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today, a new report reveals rest home residents are getting just six minutes of care an hour, new legal action filed against the so-called 'Hit and Run' inquiry, a group of breast cancer patients have delivered an impassioned plea to Parliament, and the complex process of judging beer and cider. Hosted by Juliette Sivertsen.

Listen to "'Rotten' rest home care: elderly lives at risk" on Spreaker.

Haven't listened to a podcast before? Check out our simple how-to guide.

Elderly lives are on the line as understaffed rest homes are resulting in residents not even bothering to ask for help.

A shocking new report, In Safe Hands, has been released by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and E tū, after surveying over a thousand people working in aged care.

It's revealed some rest home residents are dying as a result of just six minutes of care an hour.

Patients are even trying to ration their own care to help overworked staff - including one case of a man dying from an infected wound.

It was reported the man saw how over-worked the staff were and didn't want to be a burden by reporting his infected wound.

Further information about the tragic death is not being made publicly available as it was collected through an anonymous survey and is still being looked into.

For more on this story, click here

A new development in the investigation into allegations Kiwi soldiers covered up the killing of Afghan civilians in 2010.

New legal action has been filed in the High Court against the so-called 'Hit and Run' inquiry.

The inquiry was launched in response to allegations Defence Force members covered up the killing of six Afghan civilians during a military operation in 2010.

Judicial review proceedings on Operation Burnham have been filed on behalf of the villagers - relating to rulings made by the Government inquiry - and to the Attorney General's refusal to intervene.

Lawyer Deborah Manning says it appears the purpose of the inquiry has "skewed".

For more on this story, click here

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the operation of Boeing 737 Max aircraft to or from New Zealand.

Currently this affects only one operator, Fiji Airways which flies between Nadi and Wellington.

There are no other airlines that fly this aircraft type to New Zealand.

Airlines around the globe are grounding the planes after the model was involved in two fatal crashes in under five months.

The latest was in Ethiopia on Sunday, killing all 157 people onboard.

For more on this story, click here

Ten women have today told MPS how desperately they don't want to die of breast cancer.

The women, from all over the country and all walks of life, came together at Parliament to try to persuade parliamentarians to push for Pharmac to fund two drugs they say will prolong the lives of breast-cancer sufferers.

The health select committee is hearing submissions on a petition signed by close to 34,000, calling for Health Minister David Clark and Pharmac to fund the life-prolonging medicines.

And it was a moving moment at Parliament, as MPs sang a waiata with the women.

They were led by Elisa Wijohn, one of the women urging the committee for better access to the drugs.

She says the drugs she needs cost almost $6000 a month.

Wijohn says luckily her parents can afford them, but not everyone can.

Susie Wall-Cade says the best treatment for her, Kadcyla, costs $10,000 every three weeks.

She says the total's capped, but comes to about $92,000 over nine months.

For more on this story, click here

The Health Minister's also under fire from the Opposition over the measles outbreak.

A baby and a young adult in Auckland, are the latest to contract the highly contagious disease, after 27 cases in Canterbury.

Some GPs in Canterbury ran out while waiting for 18,000 vaccines to be delivered.

A CDHB spokesperson says they can't rule out further delays.

National leader Simon Bridges says Clark needs to answer some basic questions.

Clark says more vaccines are en route, and it's just a question of rolling them out.

In Auckland, the region's public health service says they were notified of a young adult and infant who both had measles, and could have spread them to others.

For more on this story, click here

The house sales market has taken a hit, with Auckland sales down 18 per cent last month, compared to the same time last year.

Real Estate Institute data revealed national volumes were down 9.5 per cent.

Just 5954 properties were sold last month throughout the country compared to February last year when 6576 properties were sold.

But in Auckland, the fall was more severe.

REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell says February this year bucked the trend.

She says usually at this time of year sales volumes are strong, but this year 13 of 16 regions saw an annual fall in the number of properties sold.

For more on this story, click here

A competition many of us wish we were on the judging panel for: the Beer and Cider Awards.

More than 100 breweries and cider-makers from around the country and internationally have put a record number of more than 640 brews in the ring, all vying for a spot in the awards' top 30.

Event manager Rachel Touhey says there were 11 pallets of beer and cider brought into Westpac Stadium for the competition, and about 5100 bottles and cans.

Staff organise the drinks in a back room into which the judges cannot go, and bring them out in plain glasses.

Some beers had different temperatures they should be served at, while others might need to be turned upside down before serving to "rouse the sediment".

Judges will taste up to 60 beers and ciders in a day, and unlike with wine tasting, cannot spit it out after tasting it.

For more on this story, click here

That's the Front Page for today, Wednesday 13 March, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts here, iHeartRadio here, and Stitcher here.

If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Juliette Sivertsen on Twitter.