Board will not bail out rest home

BY HAYLEY GALE

The Nelson Marlborough District Health Board will not bail out Golden Bay's only rest home, despite calls from Labour and Green MPs for it to step in and save it from closure.

Their call follows yesterday's announcement that the 17-bed Joan Whiting Rest Home in Collingwood is to close on November 30 after a long financial struggle.

Labour MP Damien O'Connor, who visited the home yesterday, said it was the health board's role to ensure care for elderly people was available "in a location accessible to them and their family".

"Trucking elderly residents of Golden Bay to rest homes in Motueka will be quite frightening and hugely disruptive to the residents.

"The NMDHB must step in and ensure continuation of aged care beds in Golden Bay until the new and more efficient integrated health centre in Takaka becomes a reality.

"It's the responsibility of the National government minister Tony Ryall to provide the right level of funding for the health board to support the service," Mr O'Connor said.

The additional costs of running small rest homes in rural areas should be accounted for in funding models, he said.

However, health board secretary Mike Cummins said today there would be no extra money to keep the rest home open.

"In the past, the board has provided a temporary subsidy and the Joan Whiting Trust have done their part to keep costs down and pushed income as hard as it could. However, the board is not in a position to provide funding above the government designated rate for rest homes," Mr Cummins said.

He said the decision to close "rests with the trustees".

However, as an interested party of the integrated health centre, the board would "preserve the concept of retaining rest home services in the bay".

Health Minister Tony Ryall was unavailable for comment but a spokesman said the health board had received an extra $24 million over the past two years.

West Coast Tasman-based Green MP Kevin Hague said it was a "totally unacceptable outcome that vulnerable elderly people will be shifted out of and away from their community.

"Tony Ryall needs to take urgent action to make bridging finance available to enable these residents to stay in Joan Whiting until the new facility is built. This is what compassion and humanity requires."

Meanwhile, many in Golden Bay have expressed outrage at the lack of funding for rest home care.

Golden Bay Community Board chairman Joe Bell said it was "a criminal act to leave Golden Bay without the vital facility of a rest home. The rest home is essential and we must keep it going until the integrated health centre is built."

Board deputy chairwoman Carolyn McLellan, who is also a member of the integrated health group, said the closure was "devastating" and she had expected the home to remain open until the integrated health centre was built.

"The Government is not meeting its obligations. It's a disgrace that such a wonderful home such as this should have no option but to close its doors and people in their last years should be forced out of the community."

Integrated health group chairman Peter Burton said the health centre would be completed in 18 months to two years.

It would include rest home beds and the Joan Whiting trustees had saved some funds to continue to be involved with that, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News