With the recent government announcement about the new Dunedin hospital, Presbyterian Support Otago (PSO) believes residential aged care is now more important than ever, and adequate funding is essential for its long-term viability.
Having suitable aged-care facilities for older people has multiple benefits for the community, including less reliance on hospital beds which have far higher costs to the health system than residential aged-care beds.
It is widely known that aged care is under-funded and that investment by the government is essential over the coming years as the population ages and more older people will need a higher level of care as their health issues become more complex.
The cost to build a hospital bed is 10 times higher than an aged-care facility bed. It therefore makes sense to invest critical healthcare dollars in the aged-care sector.
If this sector continues to be underfunded there will not be capacity to help when our hospital services become even more overloaded than they already are.
By 2040, New Zealand will need 59,000 new aged-care beds.
Dementia care demand will rise by 40% and psychogeriatric care demand will rise by 20%.
If the Dunedin hospital is to have less beds than was originally planned (something we strongly oppose), finding suitable solutions for older people is essential, especially in light of the concerns raised by Associate Professor of Psychiatry Yoram Barak, who fears that psychogeriatric beds could be scrapped in the new Dunedin hospital.
Ten thousand bed days can be saved by older people being discharged from hospital a day earlier. This is a huge saving, but the facilities for older people who are unable to return to their own homes must be adequate and fully funded for us to do this.
The current underfunding particularly affects not-for-profit providers such as PSO, which caters for older people unable to pay.
Keeping our doors open and providing services in the current environment has resulted in our inability to invest in buildings and infrastructure that enable this care for those in our community who most need it.
Aged-care providers like PSO are a big part of the solution.
Older people do not need nor want to have extended stays in our public hospitals when they could have a brighter and safer life in a residential aged-care home.
●Robbie Moginie is interim chief executive of Presbyterian Support Otago.
