Officials shut down 'gagging' rest home

Residents at the Auckland rest home where a woman was gagged must leave today after Auckland District Health Board terminated its contract.

The Belhaven Rest Home, which has 12 residents, has been at the centre of abuse allegations after a resident was gagged with tape, reportedly for making too much noise.

Auckland DHB chief planning and funding officer Denis Jury said yesterday that the board had terminated its contract with the home with immediate effect.

The decision had been based on the preliminary findings of a ministry investigation and the recommendations of a temporary manager appointed by the board last week.

"The temporary manager was appointed because Belhaven had failed to comply with the obligations that are set out within their contract with the ADHB," he said.

"What has now become very clear is that any efforts to implement remedial processes would be very complex and take considerable time.

"It is therefore in the best interest of the residents that the contract is terminated so they can get the standard of care they require as soon as possible."

The running of the Belhaven Rest Home was taken over by the board last week after a picture of the gagged woman, taken by a tradesman, was published in a Sunday newspaper.

Richard Bradburn, who was visiting the home yesterday, said family friend and resident John Helmshaw was devastated at being forced to move.

"He likes it here. If we have our way, it won't get closed down, we'll have it [the decision] overturned."

The residents did not have one bad thing to say about staff, other than the worker responsible for the gagging, he said.

Dr Jury said that, while residents were generally comfortable, there were significant concerns.

"The residents at the rest home have a range of clinical and specialist needs. While the majority of the staff were doing their best, it was the view of the temporary manager that the facility was unable to ensure the required standards of care set out in the contract would be provided to the residents, and Belhaven's management could not remedy these breaches."

Where clinically possible, the board would make every effort to keep residents together to limit any distress from the move, he said.

"Client safety and wellbeing is paramount to us and we recognise that these residents have developed a very close community at Belhaven. We will be working with each of the residents' families to do everything we can to ensure that, where clinical need allows, the residents are able to stay together in the future."

- NZPA, staff reporter