5 days ago
Older patients stuck in hospitals due to limited aged care spaces
Many hospitals faced similar problems to North Shore Hospital, with elderly, medically discharged patients unable to move out because there was no where to send them.
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123RF
Aged care homes are getting daily calls from hospitals or tearful family members, desperate to find a place for older patients who cannot be in their own homes.
Care homes are calling for an infrastructure grant to help stop situations like at
North Shore Hospital
where there was a ward of people ready to leave but with nowhere to be discharged to for longer term care.
Joe Asghar oversees 13 homes in the lower North Island as chief executive for Presbyterian Support Central.
"Every day we have families on the phone to our care managers, quite often in tears trying to find a space and of course we are quite often the place of last resort for hospitals who have particularly complex residents who need that higher level of nursing care," he said.
"It's heartbreaking. We only have 800 beds. We would love to have more beds so we could meet our obligation of caring for those that are needy and vulnerable."
Australia has introduced an infrastructure grant largely aimed at small, regional, or charity-run aged care facilities to help them upgrade to allow higher levels of care.
The Aged Care Association was calling for the same thing here and Asghar said it was badly needed.
The homes he looked after needed $10 million for basic upgrades it could not afford to do on the spot - like roof or boiler repairs, he said.
Without that work, the worst case scenario would be homes were not up to scratch and would have to close, he said.
Even though the infrastructure grants would be very welcome, they were only one part of the solution.
More funding was needed to help provide care for the more complex patients homes were now seeing, Asghar said.
"They are coming much more frail, much more unwell, and needing higher levels of care," he said.
"I think the days are long gone where we see our residents coming in without needing assistance."
Many hospitals faced similar problems to North Shore Hospital, with elderly, medically discharged patients unable to move out because there was nowhere to send them.
North Shore's dedicated ward was praised as a practical solution by health worker unions, but needing an entire ward illustrated how big the problem was becoming.
Asghar said hospitals were not the best place for those who no longer needed to be there.
They needed support to live well, including social connection.
"Talking with other residents and doing activities, even if it's just the 10 minute quiz everyday," he said.
The Aged Care Minister Casey Costello has said the government is looking into improvements to the aged care system including providing for better transitions between levels of care.
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