More Evidence of Underfunding in the Aged Care

18 November 2004

More Evidence of Underfunding in the Aged Care Sector

Yet another rest home has been forced to close its doors due to the lack of fair and reasonable funding by the Labour Government. The current Government has not funded DHB’s sufficiently and we are now seeing the results.

Mr Max Robins President of the New Zealand Private Hospitals Association says “This is further evidence that the current funding levels are unsustainable and with a recent offer by DHB’s of just a 1% increase in most areas this is not likely to change.”

“In the future aged care funding will be lost in the big bucket of population based funding that DHB’s operate under. Providers are asking the Government to adequately fund the DHB's so that they can pay a fair price for residential care. We want to continue to provide high quality care for the residents we look after,” Mr Robins said.

“DHB's control the referrals to residential care, it is up to them to manage demand”, he said. “Demand should not be managed by driving providers out of business and dislodging vulnerable residents from their homes. We are seeking a fair deal for providers and a fair deal for our residents. We have no evidence that the Government is showing any concern about the situation”, he said.

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