Urgent Government Funding Needed For Our Elderly

Media Release:

Nurses Organisation Supports Coroner’s Findings: Urgent Government Funding Needed For Our Elderly

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is supporting the findings of Wellington Coroner Garry Evans who has recommended an urgent review of the funding for rest homes and age-care hospitals.

“The government’s response to the Coroner’s findings is extremely disappointing. This is not the funding increase the sector desperately needs,” NZNO industrial advisor Lynley Mulrine said. Minister of Health Tony Ryall has announced that the government will provide a three percent inflation adjustment for the age-care sector and an extra two percent to help nursing retention.

“Elderly New Zealanders are dying unnecessarily in residential care because the government is not providing enough funding to ensure these facilities are staffed safely and that all staff are trained adequately to care for their elderly residents. The government can fix this problem and save precious lives. An inflation adjustment will certainly not achieve the outcome needed to provide good quality care for our mothers, fathers, and grandparents. Registered nurses (RNs) and caregivers are paid substantially less than their district heath board (DHB) counterparts and two percent will not close that gap,” Mulrine said.

“The majority of those employed to deliver care in these facilities are barely paid above minimum wage (the average caregiver earns $13 per hour). Low wages mean it is very difficult to attract and retain caregivers and RNs to work in residential care when they could get a job working in a supermarket or in a DHB hospital and earn more,”

“The care needs of the elderly are often complex and behaviours unpredictable. The cases the Coroner has investigated are not isolated; we continue to hear of similar incidences happening all across New Zealand. These situations will continue until there is a substantial investment in training, decent pay and minimum staffing levels. These factors are essential if we are to provide quality care for our elderly,” Mulrine said.

ENDS

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