Stewart Barbara: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Stewart Barbara: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:624;Page:19409] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 This review definitely makes interesting reading and one of the issues discussed is the urgent need to address aged-care funding for our senior citizens. One of the true measures of success for any Government is the care that is provided for the most vulnerable in our society. 
We had the Prime Minister telling Parliament that Labour would look into funding pressures in the aged-care sector and I know that it has done so. But the bottom line is that one cannot build a reputation on what one intends to do. That sector is still waiting to receive the increase in funding it was promised. The Government promised a 3 percent increase unconditionally but the funding has not yet been passed on to rest home providers. Most of those who enter rest homes do so because they can no longer live at home and they need to be looked after. But these rest homes are not hospitals even though the majority of funding for them comes from the Government’s health budget. We must ask when that additional funding will be passed on and how much longer those rest homes will have to wait. 
The fact is that there is simply not enough money going into elder care. There has been no increase in fees for many years and that issue needs to be addressed. Many rest homes are operating at a loss and no one can afford to sustain a loss for a long period. Then what do we see? We see that providers are literally forced out of the sector and the resultant care they had provided vanishes with them. Chronic underfunding has already forced the closure or sale of dozens of rest homes and private hospitals right through the country and we regularly hear of more instances of that happening. 
There are between 850 and 900 residential care facilities and geriatric hospitals throughout the country and they cater for a minimum of 42000 people. We know that the number is far greater than 42000 as that is the number on the Ministry of Health database is for subsidised residents. We need to be very aware that we have an ageing population and that we will require the services of those residential care facilities. 
I heard the very same pleas for funding when I attended the launch of HealthCare Providers New Zealand a new organisation formed to represent the rest home industry. Aged-care facilities are watching very anxiously as rest homes are being forced to close. To date more than 2000 rest home beds operated by religious and welfare organisations have been lost or are up for sale. If too many providers exit from this sector the choices will become extremely limited. 
We also have a second crisis within the aged-care industry: those who work within the sector are seeing their wages turn into dust. The pay for those who provide the service must be addressed. We cannot continue to rely on the goodwill of those working within the aged-care sector to accept substandard pay because rest home carers are among the lowest paid in New Zealand. In today’s  
Dominion Post 
 we also read that: “The Government has been accused of forcing care providers to employ staff as ‘slave labour’ and of crippling services for those in need with chronic underfunding.” So the Government needs to be very aware that if more is not done in this particular industry the fall-out will be totally devastating. 
It is a sad fact that growing older is becoming very difficult in this country. For many elderly New Zealanders the future looks bleak. At the end of a productive life it is not too much to expect to receive care when it is needed. Although we acknowledge that some responsibility for that care does initially lie with the family we must also acknowledge that sometimes it is just not possible to cope with a needy parent and that is where the Government can help. This is an area that needs urgent attention. Funding must be sufficient to ensure quality care in the aged sector and we definitely owe our elderly that. It is an area that we do not want to see fall over. We have seen the demise of many rest homes such as those run by the Salvation Army the Methodist Mission and some of the smaller private rest-home providers. Last December the Salvation Army announced that it would close rest homes.