The board of Birchleigh Residential Care Centre has decided to cut its respite service because of the extra workload short-term residents created, Birchleigh chief executive Malcolm Hendry says.
''Each short-term admission can tie up our clinical staff for up to a full day - even for returning residents.
Within a week, the resident may be discharged again,'' he said.
''The frequency of these admissions means our nurse manager or registered nursing staff can spend several days each month on short-term stay administration and documentation compliance.''
The rest-home had offered one of its rooms for short-term residents for several years under the Southern District Health Board's respite care or carer support funding programme, but administrative requirements and funding meant it was no longer justified.
''While money is not the main reason for this decision, it is frustrating that funding for the commonly used carer support programme is significantly lower than for long-stay [residents],'' Mr Hendry said.
''Birchleigh currently has a waiting list for long-stay residents and most residents are coming to us with more complex care requirements than in the past.
"This is placing more demands on our managers and care staff, so we simply cannot justify continuing to tie up our clinical staff on short-stay compliance processes.''
SDHB executive director of planning and funding Sandra Boardman said the health board did not expect the decision to have any effect on service or care ''as there are rest-home beds available in the community and there is currently no shortage of rest-home level beds in the Dunedin or Mosgiel communities''.
SDHB did not contract short-term beds and the decision of how to allocate beds was up to individual providers, she said.
''As we do not contract for specific respite beds, we are not aware of which providers have a dedicated respite service.''
Mr Hendry said Birchleigh's short-term care room was booked through to November this year and the company would be honouring the bookings.
In future, if the rest-home had a room for a short period between long-term residents, it would consider taking a short-term resident, he said.
