West Coast DHB and Granger House working to improve services

Media Release

24 August 2011

West Coast DHB and Granger House working together to improve services

The West Coast DHB and UniMed, the owners of Granger House rest home in Greymouth are working together to address concerns about the quality of patient care and staffing.

Wayne Turp, General Manager of Planning and Funding for the West Coast DHB said, “Over the past months we have been working very closely with the management of Granger House. Some of the initiatives we have put in place include making our specialist nursing team available for consultation to both staff and residents at Granger House.

“Specialist respiratory, cardiac and diabetes nurses have been working with Granger House staff. It is important that both our primary care and hospital clinicians are able to support their colleagues at Granger House and provide expert advice. Duty nurse managers are also available via phone outside normal hours.”

UniMed Chief Executive Dermot Martin says, “We are committed to continually improving the services at Granger House. We have worked closely with the DHB and recently we participated in a service review. We will be updating families of our residents on progress over the next week. Recent family feedback has been encouraging for staff.

“Over the past months both nursing and patient care has improved. In the past we have faced difficulties in finding quality senior staff so to ensure recent improvements are maintained and even enhanced, we have employed Carl Hutchby as one of our leaders at Granger House. Carl’s other role is the Clinical Director for the DHB’s Rural Academic General Practice and Greymouth Medical Centre. We expect that Carl’s dual role will see closer collaboration between Granger House and the DHB.”

Wayne Turp says, “We are also including Granger House staff in any formal teaching sessions run by the DHB or our aged care partners. For the past month our Associate Director of Nursing, has been regularly onsite at Granger House to work with staff to develop robust plans around patient care.

“Both UniMed and the DHB are committed to ensuring the quality of care provided at Granger House is first class. Over the next 20 years it is predicted that the number of people aged over 65 on the West Cost will increase by 50%. We must have services and care facilities that are operating well and the community can trust.”

ENDS

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