Closure of Taihape Rest Home 'Elder Abuse' says Rural Women New Zealand
Friday 26 November 2010, 4:07PM
By Rural Women New Zealand
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Rural Women New Zealand members will be joining a further protest in Taihape this afternoon against the Whanganui District Health Board’s decision to do away with the town’s 20 rest home and four inpatient beds, effectively closing the hospital.
The decision means 20 elderly residents are faced with a move to rest homes over 100 kilometres away in Whanganui or Palmerston North – a three hour round trip by road.
“This is elder abuse,” says Rural Women New Zealand health spokesperson, Kerry Maw. “To move a dementia client out of familiar surroundings to somewhere over 100 kilometres away, without people coming to visit them, means they are going to be completely lost.
“These are frail, elderly people and we are appalled at the complete lack of compassion that is being shown in this decision,” says Mrs Maw.
Rural Women New Zealand asks the Minister of Health how the closure of the rest home can be justified when New Zealand is a signatory to the OECD Ageing in Place Strategy. This states that where elderly people can no longer continue to live in their own homes “they should be enabled to live in a sheltered and supportive environment which is as close to their community as possible, in both the social and geographical sense.”
Rural Women New Zealand believes a more holistic view of the DHB’s funding difficulties must be taken.
People in Taihape and surrounding rural areas currently visit their relatives in the rest home on a daily basis. In future visits will not only be rare, but also costly and time consuming for individuals.
“The impacts on the community have not been taken into account, nor the threats to the remaining health services in Taihape. The rest home closure could be the thin end of the wedge,” says Mrs Maw.
This also brings in to question the availability of a weekend duty Doctor, as there will not be any nursing staff to fall back on at the rest home and hospital, as there are at present.
Rural Women New Zealand calls on the Whanganui DHB to urgently re-think its decision to close the rest home and inpatient beds, and instead give the people of Taihape something to celebrate this Christmas.