The Perfect Storm: Health And Housing Crisis Will See More New Zealanders Struggle To Access Aged Care Services | Scoop News – Scoop

Monday, 1 August 2022, 9:02 amPress Release: Aged Care Matters

Report reveals inadequate access to aged care servicesrisks overloading public health system

A NZIERreport released today paints a grim picture of the futurefor the increasing proportion of New Zealanders who willneed to access aged residential care services.

Thereport, Assessing the equity issues facing agedresidential care over the coming decade, commissionedby Aged Care Matters, highlights how government underfundingof the countrys aged care system will make it moredifficult for older New Zealanders without financial meansto access aged care services.

Aged Care Matters, amovement of members of the New Zealand Aged Care Associationto escalate a national dialogue on the crisis in the sector,commissioned the report following a lack of provision inBudget 2022 for aged care despite chronic governmentunderfunding.

The NZIER report says that while it isdifficult to accurately identify government expenditure onaged care, government spending in New Zealand appears to below compared to the other countries in the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

NewZealands model for the government funding of agedresidential care has not been revised since2000.

NZIER found that New Zealand ranks near the topof international comparisons with respect to the number ofpeople in aged residential care, with 14.6% of thepopulation aged 80+ in aged residential care in 2019. Usinga similar measure to New Zealand, Australia has about 13.9%of the 80+ population in aged residential care.

NewZealanders often finance aged residential care by sellingtheir home. The report says that declining home ownershiprates will reduce this key pathway to accessing quality agedcare, which in turn will exacerbate inequities in agedresidential care services.

Stagnant government fundingand declining home ownership are creating a perfect storm offuture challenges for New Zealands aging population, saysCarriann Hall, CEO of CHT Healthcare Trust which operatesaged care facilities in Auckland, Bay of Plenty and theWaikato.

Alongside declining home ownership, thereis also a shrinking supply of rental housing that meets theneeds of older New Zealanders. Despite the report showingthat District Health Board (DHB) expenditure on support forageing in the home increased more than 120% from 2005 to2015, housing insecurity for older people means the optionof ageing in place might become hard to achieve for thosewho do not own a home outright.

The frighteningpotential impact for older New Zealanders in our communitieswho cant pay for their own aged care is they will be atrisk of becoming effectively homeless as their care needschange with age.

Older New Zealanders living inWest Coast, Northland, MidCentral, Whanganui andTairawhiti are likely to be left further behind than theircounterparts in other regions. These are DHB regions wheremore than 60% of the population aged 85+ are categorised asdeprived, according to the University of Otago New Zealandindex of socioeconomic deprivation. These regions willsuffer worse inequities as the ageing population grows inthe coming decades and the system continues to shift towardsuser pays.

The report said that the West Coast andNorthland also have fewer dementia beds, compared to otherregions.

Without access to aged residential careservices, the report shows the burden of care for NewZealands ageing population will fall on other parts ofthe healthcare system.

Aged Care Matters convenorand Heritage Lifecare Chief Executive Officer Norah Barlow,who operates aged care facilities throughout the country,says this is an urgent issue for New Zealand.

Ourpublic health system relies on the availability of beds inthe aged care sector to meet the current needs of people whocannot live independently or need palliative end-of-lifecare. How will our already stretched public health systemcope with the rising projected demands?

The agedcare sector has actively tried to engage with the Governmentabout its broken funding model, but frustratingly we havenot seen any work to address issues raised in the review theMinistry of Health commissioned in 2017.

Wereseeing retirement villages building more Occupational RightsAgreement (ORA) beds, but only some villages have a residentpopulation willing to pay for a higher level of care thanthe basic care mandated by the current funding system. Thecurrent government funding model needs to be improved tocreate the incentives for retirement villages to maintainfacilities and beds.

Consistent with the widerhealth sector, the aged care sector is also facing dangerousstaff shortages, especially among registerednurses.

Jeremy Nicoll, Chief Executive Officer, ArvidaGroup, oversees more than 2,700 staff, including over 250registered nurses.

The NZIER report finds that theacute shortage of registered nurses and rising staff costsis putting at risk the ability of people with complexmulti-morbidity to access aged care facilities.

Forolder New Zealanders with multiple health conditions, theinability to access aged residential care limits theiroptions and will put further pressure on our public healthsystem.

Representatives from the Aged Care Mattersmovement plan to engage with government stakeholders todiscuss the findings from the NZIER report in the comingweeks.

NZIER is a specialistconsulting firm that uses applied economic research andanalysis to provide a wide range of strategic advice. Itundertakes and make freely available economic research aimedat promoting a better understanding of New Zealand'simportant economic challenges.

This report wasprepared at NZIER by Philippa Miller Moore and ChristinaLeung. It was quality approved by Sarah Hogan.

How tocite the report:NZIER. 2022. Assessing the equityissues facing aged residential care over the coming decade.A report for New Zealand Aged CareAssociation.

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