Worry over rest home changes

Press, 14 May 1987, Page 5

Worry over rest home changes

Changes to the special rest homes subsidy scheme announced by the Government on Saturday do not go far enough and would be largely unworkable in practice, according to the New Zealand Licensed Rest Homes Association. The association’s national secretary, Mr Noel Derry, said: “An unworkable scheme hurts the vulnerable and will be abused by the unscrupulous.”

However, the association supports the general thrust of the changes, and will take up an offer to work through the problems.

“We are only disappointed that we were not consulted earlier. I am sure a workable formula could have been achieved quite some time ago,” Mr Derry said.

The association would like to see more fundamental issues tackled such as the provision of a single, equitable scheme for all types of home, and a change from a full subsidy based on an assets test, to a “top up” scheme based more on income than assets criteria. “The whole basis of the existing scheme is both inefficient, and an affront on human dignity,” Mr

Derry said. The association is also concerned the scheme is not available nationally and that there has been a halt on new regions joining the scheme, pending the outcome of various other reviews such as the health benefits review.

A big restructuring of the rest home scheme will mean subsidies paid in respect of elderly people admitted to homes covered by the scheme will be related directly to the level of care they require.

There will be three levels of care, according to whether the person has

some, moderate or an appreciable degree of dependency. The scheme changes were released by the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus, and the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett. “We have been concerned that under the present scheme, subsidies are based on the fees charged by individual homes, irrespective of the level or standard of care provided,” Mrs Hercus said. / Dr Bassett said the changes were the first step in establishing greater equity and uniformity in the funding of long-term care for elderly and disabled people. Other major changes to the special rest home scheme are the deter-

mination of maximum subsidy rates based on an assessment of the reasonable costs associated with each of the three levels of care; the payment of the special rest home subsidy to new applicants from the date of assessment, or the date of entry into a rest home, whichever is the later; and the development and implementation of a system of grading rest homes. Dr Bassett said a working group would be set up to develop a system for assessing rest homes and their capacity to cater for residents with differing dependency needs. “This will involve close consultation with the New Zealand Licensed Rest Homes Association,” he said.