Grey Power On Residential Care Providers Funding

"Grey power New Zealand Federation welcomes the additional funding, increasing the offer from the DHBs of 1% for the residential care providers to 3%.

However, while this increase is welcomed, it is only just above the CPI and will not rectify the severe underfunding that this section of care for the elderly has had for a number of years.

It is really only in line with the provision for CPI increases that the private patient will have to pay in the future to comply with the Social Security ( Long Term Residential Care ) Amendment Act and does not really address the fact that hospitals are underfunded by 10%, resthomes underfunded by more than 24% and dementia units underfunded by more than 25%.

The funding to the residential care hospital beds has only increased by 13% over the last 10 years while the CPI has increased by 21% over the same period .

We urge the government to properly address the problem so that a sustainable service for the elderly can be maintained ."

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>