Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Retirement homes and aged care centres want a cross-party agreement to build more facilities - and to stop older people getting stuck in hospital unnecessarily.
North Shore Hospital has a ward full of patients who have been medically discharged but who cannot leave hospital because they have nowhere to go for further, non-hospital care.
The Aged Care Association represents nearly all aged residential care providers and says the North Shore situation is an example of a nationwide problem.
Its chief executive Tracey Martin said those working in aged care had been warning the government for years that it would happen.
An agreement needed to be reached that went beyond politics to ensure there would be enough health care for older people, she said.
Politicians needed to agree on an infrastructure grant for aged care facilities - particularly those that were smaller, run by charities, or rural - so they could afford to provide higher level care, such as dementia units.
"We need at least the major parties to agree on the problem, to agree on the solution - and we need at least a decade of travel time to shift the current system into a more sustainable system with the number of beds New Zealanders are going to need," she said.
North Shore Hospital said it had brought the patients together into one ward [Ward 6] to help ease pressure on the hospital in the busy winter.
But it was not uncommon for New Zealanders in other parts of the country to wait in hospital for a space in a place that could help with, for example, stroke rehabilitation or demential care.
It did not always mean a move to permanent residential care, but could be a stepping stone to getting home.
Aged Care Minister Casey Costello. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Aged Care Minister Casey Costello said the government had "extensive work underway" to ensure older New Zealanders were able to receive the right care and support.
"This includes looking at improvements to the aged care system across the spectrum of care from homecare services through to dementia and specialist psycho-geriatric services," she said
It would try to improve transitions between different levels of care, she said
The government had invested $24 million in the last budget to help people transfer from hospital when they no longer needed hospital-level care, Costello said.
Some of that funding was helping patients at North Shore Hospital to be placed in aged residential care (ARC).
"However, the patients in Ward 6 have additional complexities, which means they can't be appropriately cared for in ARC straight away," she said.
There were real benefits to people getting out of hospital when they no longer needed hospital-level care, Costello said.
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