Worker claims cuts to staff hours at Mary Doyle in Havelock North ‘detrimental’

Mary Doyle retirement village in Havelock North has undergone some significant changes. Photo / Warren Buckland

Staffing hours have been cut at Havelock North’s Mary Doyle retirement village, which an aged care worker claims has been “detrimental to the residents”.

The changes, which came into force in September, included cutting hundreds of rostered staff hours each week. Mary Doyle offers rest home, hospital-level and dementia care.

It is owned by Arvida, which operates retirement villages nationwide.

Arvida regional manager Jason Edkins said the rostering change at Mary Doyle largely had to do with the closure of two of its five “households” that comprise the village.

“Last year, due to the registered nurse shortage, we made the difficult decision to close two of our five care households.

“We retained all team members, even though we had reduced the number of households we were operating.”

The process was conducted this year “to balance our care team to the appropriate levels”.

“We are confident our delivery of care at Mary Doyle aligns with our commitment to deliver the best in care and support to our residents,” Edkins said.

“We understand changes to new rostering take some time to settle so it’s always a journey of review and improvement with the team.”

He did not confirm how many staff hours a week had been reduced or comment on job losses.

In the removal of some roles, such as activities assistants, he said the current approach “incorporates activities into day-to-day operations for all wellness partners”.

A decision document — seen by Hawke’s Bay Today — was given to staff at the end of July, following a consultation process.

It stated the three households would have a reduction in rostered staff hours of 250 hours, 271 hours, and 312 hours respectively.

It also stated there would be “removal” of some roles, including an activities assistant in two of the households.

“The decision to reduce rostered shifts/hours or roles is never an easy one, but we have a commitment to ensure our organisation is managed responsibly and sustainably, to enable us to invest back into the evolving services we provide to our residents,” the document said.

Nurses, caregivers and wellness partners had to ”apply“ for a position on the new roster.

A current staff member, who did not want to be named, said the changes had been implemented and morale among staff was “quite low” following the restructure.

The staffer claimed the changes were impacting levels of care.

“To me, it is detrimental to the residents.”

The worker believed that was due to staff being stretched and not having as much time with residents as they used to, as they were “picking up what others [used to] do”.

The staff member also claimed not having roles such as dedicated activities assistants had an impact on residents.

Some staff had left “because they get better hours elsewhere” and ” some have split themselves between two places”.

Arvida confirmed the two households at Mary Doyle closed last year will remain closed unless the shortage of registered nurses improves in the region.

Earlier this year, a protest was staged in Wellington outside Arvida’s Village at the Park retirement village, over similar plans to cut staff hours by about 400 hours a week.

Arvida operates 35 retirement communities and villages across the country, according to its website.

A US private equity firm’s offer to buy Arvida for $1.2b was recently accepted.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.