In April, all district health boards were asked by director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield to conduct a systematic assessment of the "actual readiness" of aged care facilities in their area if Covid-19 was detected.
The elderly are known to be especially vulnerable to Covid-19, and during the first outbreak of the disease five significant clusters occurred in aged care facilities, resulting in several deaths.
A report to be considered by the Southern District Health Board’s community and public health and disability committee on Monday said of the 65 facilities in the South, 58% had done a thorough job of drafting Covid-19 plans.
"However, 28% required significant improvements to their pandemic plans and 12% did not have pandemic plans in place," the report said.
"Six facilities were deemed high risk ... requiring immediate site visits from a SDHB infection prevention and control specialist nurse and a nurse practitioner to provide support and assistance to develop their localised Covid-19 planning response."
The report said its findings reflected a moment in time when New Zealand was at an early stage in an unprecedented health event, and there were daily changes to the situation and to official advice.
Facilities, which ranged widely in terms of scale and resources, had willingly taken part in the review and had done significant work to improve their preparedness.
"The assessment process highlighted gaps in plans and policies related to Covid-19 preparation; this has provided an opportunity for facilities and the SDHB to work together to focus on improvements to manage and minimise harm from a Covid-19 outbreak.
"This work is substantive and ongoing."
Access to personal protective equipment (PPE), an issue for healthcare workers nationwide, was also a problem in the southern region.
Aged care usually got its supplies from commercial firms or the SDHB, but with huge demand, supply was variable.
"The majority of facilities reported frustrations and uncertainties with PPE access, and also significant price increases from commercial suppliers," the report said.
There was also frustration and confusion around different PPE recommendations for aged care, as opposed to hospitals.
"This was stressful for aged residential care staff and resulted in confusion about what was best practice ... 22% of facilities had limited or no evidence of training staff in the safe use and disposal of PPE."
Finding extra staff if 30% or more of a centre’s employees had been unwell would have been problematic for the majority of facilities and troublesome for those in rural areas.
"The majority of facilities reported they will be highly unlikely to sustain function in a Covid-19 outbreak without significant SDHB staffing support."
