10. SUE KEDGLEY (Green) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
How does the Government ensure that all taxpayer funding for aged care is spent on the provision of care for subsidised aged-care residents, and not for other purposes?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
In the last 2 years the Government has put an extra $88 million into improving the quality of nursing supervision in rest homes and increasing aged-care subsidies. Government funding for aged care is delivered by contracting rest homes and others to provide this care, the details of which are specified in their contracts. The district health boards audit the rest homes and others to ensure that they are providing appropriate care.
In the absence of any financial monitoring of how the $800 million - odd of taxpayer funding for aged care is spent, how can the Government be sure that funding that is intended to be spent on the provision of care for residents is not siphoned off by some providers into profits for shareholders?
The district health boards and the Ministry of Health audit rest homes and others to ensure that they are providing appropriate care as per their contracts.
Is he concerned that according to the Nurses Organisation many aged-care providers do not pass on funding they receive for wage increases to staff working in the sector, but instead use that funding to fund capital development projects, such as building new facilities, and to increase shareholder payouts and bottom-line profits; if not, why not?
I am not concerned if aged residential care providers are also investing in providing more aged residential care beds. A major review released by the Government has indicated there will be a significant need for investment in this sector over the next few years, if we are to keep up with our ageing population.
Will he agree to initiate an inquiry into how taxpayer funding of aged care is spent, just as he initiated an inquiry into the primary health organisations to ensure that taxpayer dollars got to patients and front-line staff, as he said at the time; if not, why not?
The Ministry of Health and the district health boards are regularly auditing rest homes and others to ensure that they are providing appropriate care against their contracts. I agree with the Auditor-General, who released a report last year that said that the monitoring of rest homes under the previous Labour-Green Government was appalling.
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. We would have wished that there was a Labour-Green Government, but there was not a Labour-Green Government, and I would appreciate accuracy—
Mr SPEAKERThe member has supplementary questions with which to challenge a Minister’s answer, but she cannot by way of point of order challenge the accuracy of a Minister’s answer.
Can he confirm that there is no financial monitoring of how taxpayer funding of aged care is spent, and why, when the aged-care sector receives about $820 million of taxpayer money, is the Government—a Government that campaigned on being accountable to the taxpayer—not willing to investigate and track where money for the aged-care sector goes?
The district health boards and the Ministry of Health contract rest homes to provide a certain standard of service for our older New Zealanders—it is a priority for taxpayers. They audit the performance of the providers against their contracts, and it is our expectation that those service specifications should be met.
Does it concern him that some of the biggest providers of aged care are earning handsome returns of 14 to 16 percent every year, with one reporting a profit of $61 million last year, yet wages for caregivers are amongst the lowest in New Zealand; if this does concern him, will he begin an investigation into how aged-care funding is spent?
I am unable to confirm the figures that the member has given. It is important to realise that a number of these providers are also retirement village providers, and often it is the significant profits that come from the provision of retirement village services that produce the figures she is seeing. It is quite clear from the aged residential care review that significant investment is still required in this area, and that matter certainly has the Government’s attention.
Hon Ruth DysonWhy did he agree to the plan of the Capital and Coast District Health Board to cut home help for a further 500 older New Zealanders from 1 December this year?
I suspect that the member is referring to an announcement made by the Capital and Coast District Health Board that it would start means testing the provision of some services. That is the policy of every other district health board, including when she was an Associate Minister of Health.
Given his recent call for better support for people with Alzheimer’s, why did he agree to the closure of the psychogeriatric hospital in Richmond, which caters for the highest-need elderly people who have serious dementia and mental illness?