DHB pressured to save Joan Whiting
In typical Golden Bay fashion, the community has thrown a lot of energy into the controversy surrounding the closure of the Joan Whiting Rest Home.
Last week the trustees announced their decision to close the home on 30 November. The residents themselves say they will refuse to move, and members of the public, supporters of the home, family members of residents and some politicians have entered the fray. A petition is doing the rounds and pressure is being applied, especially to Minister of Health Hon Tony Ryall.
The GB Weekly asked the Minister:
Can the Government find the emergency funding to allow the Joan Whiting Rest Home to continue operating until the Golden Bay integrated health facility is up and running and elder care becomes the responsibility of a new body in new premises on a new site?
We received the following response:
You can attribute the following to Health Minister Tony Ryall: “Please refer your questions to Nelson Marlborough DHB because they are responsible for rest home services in their area. The Government has increased aged care subsidies by almost 7 per cent since the election and we have given Nelson Marlborough DHB an extra $24 million in the last two years.”
Labour list MP Damien O’Connor says that he is continuing to encourage the DHB to come up with a solution.
“The community should write to the papers, to the DHB and to Mr Ryall. A community meeting should also be called in Takaka so that others don’t think this is just a Collingwood issue. I am concerned that this closure may put at risk the support for the integrated solution and I have expressed that view to Mr Peters.
“In my view the DHB should lease the rest home from the trust and continue with it until the other facility is built.”
In the absence of CEO John Peters the Nelson Marlborough DHB’s board secretary Mike Cummins has sent the following:
“The DHB and the Hospitals Charitable Trust have already put in nearly $400,000 extra funding into maintaining the Joan Whiting Rest Home and the work on integration project since October 2008.
“The decision to close rests with the trustees of Joan Whiting who have identified that, based on the current level of occupancy and the lack of a waiting list, the home is not viable.
“The DHB, having received notice of closure, needs to work with residents, families and the trustees to minimise the disruption. The board remains committed to the integrated health project and having rest home beds in the Bay. We have been in contact with the both the Minister’s office, who I understand has issued a comment to your paper, and the Ministry.”
The most useful and helpful thing the Golden Bay community can do is to get behind the integrated health project so that it can proceed and sustainable rest home beds can be re-established in Golden Bay.”
Neil Wilson
