Community outrage
Stop the 'elder abuse'
06/12/2010
Central District Times
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-bed rest home and four inpatient beds, effectively closing the hospital.
The decision means 20 elderly residents are faced with a move to rest homes more than 100 kilometres away in Whanganui or Palmerston North – a three-hour round trip by road.
"This is elder abuse," saidRural Women New Zealand health spokeswoman Kerry Maw. "To move a dementia client out of familiar surroundings to somewhere over 100 km 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."
Rural Women New Zealand has asked Health Minister Tony Ryall how the closure of the rest home can be justified when New Zealand is a signatory to the OECD Ageing in Place Strategy which 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 be rare, costly and time consuming.
"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," said 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.
Rural Women New Zealand has called 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.
SOURCE: Stuff.Co.NZ
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