Ministry extends olive branch

The Ministry of Health will ‘‘sit down’’ with the New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA) to discuss the vexed issue of Covid-19 testing of asymptomatic elderly patients.

Rest homes represented by the association require all residents returning from hospital to be tested. But the Ministry has told district health boards (DHBs) not to do so unless a patient has symptoms.

The impasse has had significant consequences, with elderly patients well enough to leave hospital forced to spend weeks on a ward unnecessarily.

A industry source estimated as many as 200 people have been caught out by the problem nationwide.

The Ministry has consistently maintained the 14-day mandatory isolation period returning residents were subjected to was sufficient.

Earlier this week, it was asked to respond to the findings of a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.

The study found transmission from asymptomatic residents infected with Covid-19 ‘‘most likely contributed to the rapid and extensive spread of infection to other residents and staff.’’

It also found symptom-based strategies ‘‘were not sufficient to prevent transmission once the virus was introduced into a skilled nursing facility.’’

Yesterday, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed a Ministry colleague had written to association chief executive Simon Wallace on Tuesday.

‘‘We’re actually going to sit down with them and look at all the information we’ve gleaned over the last few weeks about what we need to do to make sure our aged residential care facilities are as safe as they can be,’’ Bloomfield said.

This included looking at the Ministry’s review into rest homes with confirmed Covid-19 cases, and information provided by DHBs.

‘‘That includes the role of testing for both residents who might be entering or coming back from hospital, those who are there already, as well as staff and what procedures we need to also put around that,’’ Bloomfield said.

A Ministry spokeswoman said NZACA, the Ministry and DHB clinical experts were now ‘‘reviewing experiences to date and emerging evidence’’ and expected to update advice next week.