Family at wits’ end over test rules

Stuck in hospital and growing weaker, Mary Kincaid has been separated from her family for the longest time in her life.

The 90-year-old sometimes calls out from her room, desiring company. Kincaid has dementia; she has been regressing to her childhood, reliving war memories from her native Scotland.

The Christchurch woman is among several elderly people caught between conflicting advice. The New Zealand Aged Care Association has told its members any new admissions need to first return a negative Covid-19 test but the Ministry of Health says new admissions should only be tested if they are symptomatic. Regardless of testing, new admissions must be isolated for 14 days.

Cat Kincaid said Burwood Hospital staff had refused to test her mother, and the new aged-care facility she was due to move to was not relaxing its requirements.

‘‘They’re just saying they will not test anyone who is asymptomatic. That’s their stance and that’s it, end of story. It’s so tricky because she’s caught in such a predicament.’’

Canterbury District Health Board incident controller Dan Coward said last night the DHB would test patients being transferred to aged-care facilities if they were leaving areas where there had been an outbreak or if they had been in contact with a confirmed or probable case.

Mary Kincaid first moved into an aged-care facility last January. This March, she started slurring her words and struggling to walk.

She was taken to Christchurch Hospital with what was thought to be an infection, then transferred to Burwood for rehabilitation.

Her family had been visiting daily before the lockdown but had since been relying on phone calls to stay in touch.

Cat Kincaid said staff at Burwood had been providing amazing care, including setting her mother up in a wheelchair at the nurses’ station to keep her company, but her condition had deteriorated.

‘‘She’s getting weaker and weaker and she’s not drinking, she’s not eating. She’s just so stressed with not seeing family.’’

While she was in Burwood, it was decided Mary Kincaid needed hospital-level care at an aged-care facility. Her current facility did not provide this, so her family found another Arvida Group property nearby and moved her belongings there.

Once the new facility found out Mary Kincaid was calling out and would not do well in isolation, the transfer date was pushed back.

Cat Kincaid said a social worker at Burwood Hospital helped secure extra funding to pay for more staffing while her mother was in isolation.

Then the issue of testing was raised. Cat Kincaid said the family tried getting the DHB to test their mother, and went to her former GP, her former rest home and the new aged-care facility. They also asked the facility if it could make an exception, all to no avail.

‘‘It’s a hospital full of doctors – someone do a test,’’ she said. ‘‘I mean they’re testing random people in supermarkets.’’

The family had hoped they could get Mary Kincaid into the new facility so her two-week isolation period coincided with the end of lockdown. Now, they had no idea when she would be able to move. ‘‘It is really frustrating. We’re just at our wits’ end.’’

After Stuff put in questions about a woman in a similar position in the Hutt Valley, the district health board there tested her. Cat Kincaid hoped the same thing could be done for her mother.

An Arvida Group spokesman said all new admissions had to be tested.