Concern about the elderly and bed occupancy

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 28

Concern about the elderly and bed occupancy

PA Wellington Wellington private geriatric hospitals are concerned that they have empty beds while elderly people needing continuing care are occupying medical and surgical beds in Wellington Hospital. The Wellington branch chairman of the Private Hospitals Association, Mrs Vai Lankshear, said the problem had arisen because the Wellington region’s quota for geriatric hospital special assistance subsidies had been filled. The income meanstested subsidy was paid by hospital boards to geriatric patients who needed continuing care and could not be accommodated in public hospitals. Association members from 12 hospitals met this week to discuss the problem and decided to seek a

meeting with the board’s executive and the Minister of Health, Mr Caygili, to ask for at least an Interim extension of the number of subsidies, at present 356, to try to clear the backlog. Mrs Lankshear said there were 38 empty beds in the private geriatric hospitals represented at the meeting, and it was causing them financial strain. “We believe this is acting to the detriment of the public who are on the waiting lists for acute care because surgical and medical beds are in fact being filled by geriatric patients,” she said. “Members are becoming increasingly concerned about both the plight of the elderly and at the financial position in their hospitals.

“We just feel that they would be more appropriately placed in hospitals that are set up especially for the care of the elderly rather than taking up surgical beds.” There was also some concern that the fees of individual hospitals were taken into account and the policy was to place patients in the cheapest available bed, so that patient choice was very restricted. Wellington Hospital’s deputy medical superintendent, Dr Brian Hay, said the hospital always had considerable numbers of elderly people needing continuing care, especially in medical beds. One ward had been especially put aside for long-term patients who were occupying beds in acute medical general wards.