Rest home care crisis ramps up

As the country faces a second wave of Omicron infections that are affecting more of the elderly, rest homes are struggling to keep their services going, as 900 beds lie empty in the absence of nurses.

Covid-19 case numbers are rising and it is ‘‘likely’’ the country is at the start of a second Omicron wave, University of Canterbury professor and Covid19 modeller Michael Plank said.

There have already been signs more people in the older age groups were being infected, and a peak in cases was possible in the next month or two, he said.

‘‘The age factor is the single biggest concern.’’

Across the country, 900 rest home beds are lying idle as providers have either closed completely or reduced the number they were able to staff safely, Aged Care Association of New Zealand chief executive Simon Wallace said.

‘‘At this time last year there would hardly have been any closures . . .’

Wallace said the sector was short by at least 1200 nursing staff, hit by an exodus of registered nurses.

‘‘And we’re a nursing-led work force.

‘‘We don’t have other clinicians, or doctors. We rely on our specialist nursing.’’

Meanwhile, pressure on hospital beds was continuing as a result of the ‘‘twindemic’’ of Covid-19 and other winter respiratory illnesses.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said emergency department doctors were advising ‘‘a number of very elderly’’ Covid-19 patients they could go home with nursing support and pulse oximeters, rather than admitting them to hospital.

She said the demand for hospital beds meant that if people were ‘‘deemed capable of looking after themselves, they would be sent home’’.

But hospitals were regularly admitting rest home residents, either with or because of Covid-19 or flu-related complications. Sometimes hospitals were unable to discharge the patients back to their rest homes due to staffing shortages, Dalton said.

In Canterbury, hospitalisations were rising, particularly in the 65-plus age group, Te Whatu Ora/Waitaha Canterbury senior responsible officer for winter planning Becky Hickmott said.

Yesterday the region recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 infections per day – more than 1500 cases.

Across about 660 aged care homes, there were 474 active Covid-19 cases in the week ending June 29, according to a Ministry of Health weekly report, Wallace said.

He said the lack of beds in aged care was already having a significant effect on hospital flow as older people needing rest home care were often not able to be discharged.

‘‘We’ve got people held up in hospital sometimes for many weeks because they can’t get a bed in an aged care facility.’’

Wallace said it was quite common for nurses to be working two eighthour shifts in a row.

‘‘We’ve even got instances where they have been sleeping on site, and there’s even some anecdotes of nurses working 24 hours straight – not a good situation.’’

The aged residential care sector has been calling for the Government to urgently provide a pay equity deal for aged care nurses to ensure their pay keeps up with that of colleagues employed by Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand.

The sector was baffled by the lack of acknowledgement of the severity of the situation by the Government.

‘‘It isn’t helpful that the Minister of Health, as with other parts of the health sector, is just blinkered about this.

‘‘It’s not helpful that he’s not acknowledging what is really going on at the coalface,’’ he said.