The 20-bed ward was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care. Photo: rafaelbenari/123RF
The Aged Care Association says the the additional ward at North Shore Hospital demonstrates a need for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) to start paying care homes to support people who are not yet ready to return home.
The 20-bed ward, known as ward six, was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care, because of their specific needs.
RNZ understands they are not under the direct care of doctors, but being looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers.
HNZ's Waitematā operations director Brad Healey said they had started the dedicated ward to help boost capacity in the busy winter period.
But Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin told Checkpoint there had been an underfunding of the residential care sector for some time, and the government needed to work out a way to compensate aged care facilities for taking in people in similar situations to those in ward six.
"The shortage is not new. The fact that we've got an ageing population and so more people will need residential care, or somewhere secondary to recover ... rather than taking up an acute bed in a hospital is not new," she said.
Care homes had the facilities to support people in their rehabilitation and transition out of hospital, but HNZ needed to review how those beds were paid for, she said.
"Our sector has got registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, we have GPs ... they have healthcare assistance ... Those with hospital level care have got all of the equipment.
"They're there and they are capable of actually taking in individuals ... and working with them so that they are ready to go home, and are unlikely to then have to be readmitted to hospital because they have been released too soon."
The challenge was that there was not a proper funding model to pay for a person receiving that kind of care, she said.
"Because that person is not entering residential care it will require a contract between Health New Zealand and the facility, and the provider, to pay a certain price per day to actually provide the care and the support that person needs."
Currently the model provided by HNZ put forward had "no evidence base" and did not match the cost of providing that care, she said.
There was a shortage of some 12,000 beds compared to what was needed now and what would be needed in the future, and businesses needed to be compensated by the government for any work they did to pick up the slack, she said.
"Te Whatu Ora themselves said that these individuals need a very high level of care. And if they're not prepared to pay a private business for them, then that business is going to make a loss.
"Really, it's the government's responsibility to look after its citizens if they need clinical care," Martin said.
Despite the wide capabilities of care homes in New Zealand, Martin said she was unsure whether the individuals in ward six could be placed under the care of an aged care facility as she did not know their conditions.
HNZ apparently thought there was no aged care home in the country that could look after them for them, she said.
"I guess they'll just have to stay in hospital if that's the case.
"I think it's unusual," she said.
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