Editorial: Aged care no place for penny-pinching

OPINION: Unless you draw an unusual degree of comfort from Health Minister Tony Ryall's promises of funding increases to come, there is only one conclusion to draw from the latest report on the death of a rest home patient: pray that you do not end up frail, old, demented and in the care of strangers.

Because if you do, there is no guarantee you will live out your life in dignity.

Nola Margaret Revell, 82, died on July 30 last year, four days after she was found on the floor of a Gisborne rest home with a walking frame on top of her and another patient kneeling over her pulling her arm. Both patients suffered from dementia, as did a third patient also in the room.

Staffing levels at the home, the Dunblane Rest Home, met the requirements of the operators' contract with the Tairawhiti District Health Board, but there is no way of determining exactly what happened because Mrs Revell's fall was unobserved. The staff on duty were helping other residents go to the dining room.

The incident was the latest in a series that have raised concerns about standards of care and supervision in rest homes.

Last November, the Rose A Lea Rest Home in Palmerston North was closed after a complaint that a 103-year-old woman, who has since died, had her leg bound and tied to the corner of her bed with bed linen.

In December, Wellington coroner Garry Evans called for an overhaul of the sector after investigating the death of a 98-year-old Upper Hutt rest home resident who died after suspicious falls in May 2008. The resident, Florence Coombes, had been bullied by other dementia patients. The same year an elderly woman had her mouth gagged with duct tape by a worker at Belhaven Rest Home in Auckland. The worker was convicted of common assault and sentenced to 75 hours of community work.

Chris Devonport, the Hastings coroner who reported on Mrs Revell's death, has recommended the Health Ministry review rest home staffing levels and he endorsed a recommendation from Mr Evans that closed-circuit television cameras be installed in rest homes to monitor residents' movements.

His first recommendation makes eminent good sense; the second seems a Band-Aid solution.

Cameras may retrospectively show what happened and may provide a means, if the footage is ever watched, of identifying patients who pose a risk to others and themselves. But what is actually required is sufficient rest home staff to provide adequate care for patients.

Mr Ryall says aged care funding has been increased by 5 per cent this year and and will increase further in the Budget. It needs to.

Sufferers of dementia are utterly dependent on others for their comfort and wellbeing. Unlike the vast majority of those who receive government funding, they have absolutely no way of improving their lot.

This is not an area in which the Government should be penny-pinching. It may also be that society needs to rethink how it takes care of the elderly.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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