Aged Care

As we approach the festive season the community’s role in supporting family carers of the dying elderly is being highlighted by Kiwi researchers who interviewed bereaved carers.

Rest homes are in a "perpetuating cycle of decline" due to the effects of the pay equity settlement. They are supported by the unions in their calls for Government to review the way their sector is funded for pay equity. By JUDE BARBACK.

A norovirus bug, which has already affected Hawke's Bay Hospital, is now suspected to have struck patients and staff at Cranford Hospice in Hastings.

A vaccine to prevent the often painful and debilitating shingles vaccine will be offered free for over-65s to 80-year-olds next year at the same time as their annual 'flu jab

Unsurprisingly pay equity is the main point the aged care sector wants to see addressed in next year’s Age-Related Residential Care (ARRC) Services Agreement.

Is the recent case of substandard care a one-off? Or is it indicative of a struggling sector in need of an overhaul? JUDE BARBACK looks at whether a full-scale inquiry into the rest home sector is warranted.

Guidelines around the number of nurses in rest homes are potentially not being met around the country.

MAX ROBINS, Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Aged Care Association and Chief Executive of CHT Healthcare Trust says the pay equity funding formula used to fund the residential aged care sector is "far more complex than a simple statement that there are winners and losers and therefore the methodology is unfair". Here, he outlines the funding methodology.

A veteran nurse has been found to have been unjustifiably dismissed from a Dunedin rest home and awarded over $31,000.

The release of new National Standards for interRAI will help reduce duplication and help assessors to correctly use the assessment note fields.