The New Zealand aged care sector has put its foot down over the Government’s recent funding increase offer – refusing to sign off on the annual Age-Related Residential Care (ARRC) Service Agreement until the Government returns to the bargaining table.
As we reported here last month, the New Zealand Government had offered a 1.2% increase in ARRC funding for operational costs.
Norah Barlow, CEO of Heritage Lifecare, tells The Weekly SOURCE that this offer has since increased to 1.6%, which is still far short of what is required.
“This increase needs to meet the increases in nurses’ wages, electricity and food and is simply not enough,” she said.
“The Labour Government should be appalled because what will happen is in time is that operators will only ever build aged care or want to be in aged care in areas where they can charge a premium, and any Government position on equity of access will simply not be possible for any people in NZ who are poor or disadvantaged. This will disproportionately affect Māori.”
The New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA) has now convened a group of private and Not For Profit providers including Metlifecare, Bupa and Christian Healthcare Trust – led by Norah under the banner of Aged Care Matters – to advocate for stronger action to support the aged care sector.
This includes advocating for a new graduated scale of funding model for the sector – such as that first proposed in a 2019 Ernst & Young report – as well as more assistance with immigration, and improved education and training opportunities and wages for nurses and carers.
“We know that aged care workers receive less money than their counterparts in the District Health Boards (DHBs) [New Zealand’s public health system],” said Norah. “Therefore, being able to recruit and then retain staff is exceptionally hard.”
