A review into the state of aged care in New Zealand being undertaken by Grey Power and opposition parties gets under way with a series of 19 nation-wide meetings starting next week.Labour and Green Party aged care spokeswomen Winnie Laban and Sue Kedgley
A review into the state of aged care in New Zealand being undertaken by Grey Power and opposition parties gets under way with a series of 19 nation-wide meetings starting next week.
Labour and Green Party aged care spokeswomen Winnie Laban and Sue Kedgley announced last month that an investigation would be carried out to gather information about the level of care provided to elderly both in rest homes and in their own homes.
It follows concerns sparked by recent damning reports from the Health and Disability Commissioner involving rest homes, and by the Auditor-General over the general state of aged residential care in New Zealand.
A squeeze on health board funding has also resulted in cuts in some regions to spending on domestic assistance for pensioners, but National says it has taken steps to improve the residential care industry by introducing spot auditing, third party checks on the auditing agencies, and making more information available to residents and their families by publishing audit results.
Grey Power and the MPs said the elderly, their families and others were invited to have their say at the Grey Power-hosted meetings, the first of which is in Paraparaumu next Wednesday.
Ms Laban said there had been a flood of response from around the country about the investigation and the issue was too big to ignore.
