Latest news with #TraceyMartin
RNZ News
04-08-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Aged Care Association says it warned government on lack of hospital discharge options
Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Retirement homes and aged care centres want a cross-party agreement to build more facilities - and to stop older people getting stuck in hospital unnecessarily. North Shore Hospital has a ward full of patients who have been medically discharged but who cannot leave hospital because they have nowhere to go for further, non-hospital care. The Aged Care Association represents nearly all rest homes and retirement villages and says the North Shore situation an example of a nationwide problem . Its chief executive Tracey Martin said those working in aged care had been warning the government for years that it would happen. An agreement needed to be reached that went beyond politics to ensure there would be enough health care for older people, she said. Politicians needed to agree on an infrastructure grant for aged care facilities - particularly those that were smaller, run by charities, or rural - so they could afford to provide higher level care, such as dementia units. "We need at least the major parties to agree on the problem, to agree on the solution - and we need at least a decade of travel time to shift the current system into a more sustainable system with the number of beds New Zealanders are going to need," she said. North Shore Hospital said it had brought the patients together into one ward [Ward 6] to help ease pressure on the hospital in the busy winter. But it was not uncommon for New Zealanders in other parts of the country to wait in hospital for a space in a place that could help with, for example, stroke rehabilitation or demential care. It did not always mean a move to permanent residential care, but could be a stepping stone to getting home. Aged Care Minister Casey Costello. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Aged Care Minister Casey Costello said the government had "extensive work underway" to ensure older New Zealanders were able to receive the right care and support. "This includes looking at improvements to the aged care system across the spectrum of care from homecare services through to dementia and specialist psycho-geriatric services," she said It would try to improve transitions between different levels of care, she said The government had invested $24 million in the last budget to help people transfer from hospital when they no longer needed hospital-level care, Costello said. Some of that funding was helping patients at North Shore Hospital to be placed in aged residential care (ARC). "However, the patients in Ward 6 have additional complexities, which means they can't be appropriately cared for in ARC straight away," she said. There were real benefits to people getting out of hospital when they no longer needed hospital-level care, Costello said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
04-08-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Aged Care Association says ward for medically discharged shows need for funding
The 20-bed ward was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care. Photo: rafaelbenari/123RF The Aged Care Association says the the additional ward at North Shore Hospital demonstrates a need for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) to start paying care homes to support people who are not yet ready to return home. The 20-bed ward, known as ward six, was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care, because of their specific needs. RNZ understands they are not under the direct care of doctors, but being looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers. HNZ's Waitematā operations director Brad Healey said they had started the dedicated ward to help boost capacity in the busy winter period. But Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin told Checkpoint there had been an underfunding of the residential care sector for some time, and the government needed to work out a way to compensate aged care facilities for taking in people in similar situations to those in ward six. "The shortage is not new. The fact that we've got an ageing population and so more people will need residential care, or somewhere secondary to recover ... rather than taking up an acute bed in a hospital is not new," she said. Care homes had the facilities to support people in their rehabilitation and transition out of hospital, but HNZ needed to review how those beds were paid for, she said. "Our sector has got registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, we have GPs ... they have healthcare assistance ... Those with hospital level care have got all of the equipment. "They're there and they are capable of actually taking in individuals ... and working with them so that they are ready to go home, and are unlikely to then have to be readmitted to hospital because they have been released too soon." The challenge was that there was not a proper funding model to pay for a person receiving that kind of care, she said. "Because that person is not entering residential care it will require a contract between Health New Zealand and the facility, and the provider, to pay a certain price per day to actually provide the care and the support that person needs." Currently the model provided by HNZ put forward had "no evidence base" and did not match the cost of providing that care, she said. There was a shortage of some 12,000 beds compared to what was needed now and what would be needed in the future, and businesses needed to be compensated by the government for any work they did to pick up the slack, she said. "Te Whatu Ora themselves said that these individuals need a very high level of care. And if they're not prepared to pay a private business for them, then that business is going to make a loss. "Really, it's the government's responsibility to look after its citizens if they need clinical care," Martin said. Despite the wide capabilities of care homes in New Zealand, Martin said she was unsure whether the individuals in ward six could be placed under the care of an aged care facility as she did not know their conditions. HNZ apparently thought there was no aged care home in the country that could look after them for them, she said. "I guess they'll just have to stay in hospital if that's the case. "I think it's unusual," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
04-08-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Hospital ward full of patients with no medical need to be there
A ward of people at Northshore Hospital that have no medical reason to be there, but can't be discharged because they have nowhere to go for further care is the tip of the iceberg, according the Aged Care Association. The 20-bed ward was created in May for patients and RNZ understands the people there were not under the direct care of doctors, but were looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers. There is effectively nowhere for them to be discharged to further care, like an aged care facility. Chief executive of the Aged Care Association, Tracey Martin. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
The Politics Panel
Journalists Ruwani Perera and Dan Brunskill join Wallace Chapman to discuss all the big politics news of the week. Also in the studio is former NZ First MP Tracey Martin. Tonight they examine the Gaza floatilla headed by Greta Thunberg and the NZ sanctions placed on two Israeli ministers. They also discuss the tren dfor more right leaning and alt poltical organisations to film their interviews - David Seymour recently took hi own camera to an interview conducted by John Campbell. What to our journalists think of that? And finally, MMP, has it had it's day? Are we basically running a first past the post system anyway? To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Senior New Zealanders Let Down By Government… Again
Press Release – Aged Care Association Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin says, 'theres no money in the Budget for older New Zealanders, so the Government has resorted to announcing the continuation of existing funds as a win. The Minister for Seniors has announced that a fund to support older New Zealanders transfer from hospitals, to be cared for in aged residential care and the community will continue. Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin says, 'There's no money in the Budget for older New Zealanders, so the Government has resorted to announcing the continuation of existing funds as a win. The continuation of the current $6 million funding for another four years is an insult to the tens of thousands of older New Zealanders who need, and will need in future, aged care in this country. It is likely that more money has been spent on expensive reports over the last decade; reports that highlight again and again how underfunded the aged care sector is, and how unprepared our society is to provide the care at least a quarter of all New Zealanders over the age of 85 will need. And let's be clear, government doesn't fund residential aged care providers, the key relationship is between the government and the individual New Zealander. It is the senior who is assessed as needing care, it is the senior who is asset and income tested, it is the senior who is recommended by a government agency to enter residential care for safety and clinical care needs. This is who the Government is thumbing their nose at – the person who needs care, not our members, who provide the care. Our members are working as hard and as efficiently as they can to keep their doors open, to care for our elders. If Government can't acknowledge that positive and sustainable change can only happen if we are included, then we are all in trouble. The $6 million fund might still be there to help seniors transfer from hospital, but it is increasingly likely that there will be nowhere for them to transfer to.'
