Council role in rest-home questioned

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Photo: ODT files
Presbyterian Support Otago and other Waitaki aged-care services want greater discussion and clarification of the role Waitaki District Council plans to play with the Observatory Hill Retirement Village Trust.

The call comes after it was made public last week the council was considering this week whether it was to give $250,000 to help with the village's development costs and then, once the council has received a formal business case from the Observatory Village Trust, to consider another hand-out to help with expansion.

A council spokeswoman said the funds would come from community housing reserves put aside for elderly residents.

Presbyterian Support Otago chief executive Gillian Bremner said the proposed move by the council suggested the playing field for commercial rest-home operators in North Otago would change.

The proposal raised the question of which hat the council would wear when it made its decision, she said.

She wanted to know whether it was about supporting the trust as a commercial enterprise or whether the council genuinely cared about the people who would use a rest-home.

She said if the council was concerned about a shortage of beds, then there should be a wider discussion with providers in the town about how to best deal with it.

Traditionally, if providers thought there was a need to expand, they would go to the bank and convince it to release funds that way, she said.

Harbour View Rest Home manager Denise Jeffares agreed with Mrs Bremner.

Sandringham House owner and nurse manager Shelley Hollever said all aged-care facilities were worried about what the bankrolling meant.

There were a great many statements about how the village would put money back into the community, but she wanted to know when that would be.

She said Oamaru did not have the infrastructure needed for its growing elderly population and the $250,000 would be better spent creating affordable homes for its community.

``If council have a problem with housing their population why aren't they building affordable council-owned flats? There's a shortage of those in this community.''

Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher said the Observatory Hill Retirement Village was not a private enterprise. Any profit it created would come back to the community in the form of healthcare, he said.

There was no way the other private enterprises or charity-run rest-homes in the Waitaki district could guarantee their profits would come back into their respective communities, he said.

``What we're finding is an urgent need to increase the number of rest-home beds. We're losing 55 in August, when Rendell on Reed closes. It's timed when the [Observatory Hill Retirement Village] opens - that has 41 [beds].''

With no government subsidy for community housing, what the council could build would not produce anything meaningful, but the donation to the construction of the Observatory Hill Village would have an effect.

The council provides about 90 community housing units in the Waitaki district.

Presbyterian Support Otago is connected to Oamaru's Iona Home and Hospital.


 

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