Re-Spun Govt Claims On Aged Care Funding Continue

Re-Spun Government Claims On Aged Care Funding Continue

Government MPs are claiming ‘record increases’ in aged care funding, however, residential care providers have yet to see one cent of the budget’s promised funding boost.

“The Government spin machine is trying to re package an inaccurate budget announcement and re sell it at a local level, because the labour government knows that the public are concerned about the crisis in aged care funding”.

“Although the Minister announced in the budget that $71 million would be spent on aged residential care, the Government has since refused to say exactly where or who that money will go to, or what increase residential care providers will receive”.

“Until all of the promised $71 million has reached providers and compensated them for last years inflation and historical under funding, the government’s obligations to aged residential care providers, their staff, and the elderly they care for, remain unmeet”.

“We do know that under this government, while overall health spending has risen, the share of the health budget given to aged residential care over the past two years has decreased by 2%.”

“Local communities must start asking their MPs to explain the ‘record increases’. They should ask, ‘what the funding is specifically for’, and ‘is the funding for volume or price’, and ‘under what circumstances will DHBs pass that funding on’, said Martin Taylor, CEO of Healthcare Providers NZ.

ENDS

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