Rest home roulette

The Ministry of Health has investigated more than 40 rest homes over the past two years. But the public's not allowed to know which ones...

These homes aren't the only ones where spot inspections have uncovered evidence of substandard care. Reports released to Consumer… show 44 unannounced inspections of rest homes…over the past two years…

Bureaucratic games

The Ministry says disclosing the names of other providers "could unreasonably prejudice the commercial position" of the homes…

These failures in routine monitoring matter because between 25 and 30 percent of people over 65 can expect a spell in long term care…

How useful are routine audits? A Consumer researcher recently rang the Ministry posing as a relative…We asked for copies of audit reports for rest homes in the Wellington area. The Ministry staff member told us the reports were likely to be of little help and advised us to contact Age Concern. Age Concern does a lot of good work but monitoring rest homes is not its role.

The government …says it doesn't support increased regulation of rest homes.

This position is hard to defend. Parliament has passed legislation to regulate staffing levels in early childhood centres to ensure care is safe and appropriate. Why fail to do the same in rest homes…?

> SOURCE Consumer August 2009
[available to Consumer subscribers only; these excerpts provided for the purposes of reasonable review.]

> READ Consumer's October 2009 update