from MOHSaturday 16 January 2010, 12:00AM
Media release from Minister of Health Tony Ryall
Health Minister Tony Ryall says today's report from the Auditor
General's Office on certification and monitoring of rest homes
identifies long standing shortcomings that the new Government began
addressing when it took office.
"The 34,000 elderly New Zealanders living in rest homes deserve
high quality care. The OAG report found that the Ministry of Health
struggled for years to ensure the quality and safety of rest home
services" says Mr Ryall.
"One of the first actions of the new National Government was to
begin improving the auditing and monitoring of rest home
services."
"The OAG was highly critical of the lack of action between 2002
and 2008. The Auditor General was particularly critical of the
agencies that audit rest homes, and this is a concern that the
Government shares."
Mr Ryall says the Government accepts all the Auditor General's
recommendations.
"The report will be helpful in our work to address long standing
poor performance in rest home auditing."
"We have introduced spot audits of rest homes, started
publishing audit results on line, and we are further improving the
way rest homes are audited."
"We are currently drafting legislation for next year which will
require rest home audit agencies to be audited themselves and
accredited by an international organisation. In the meantime
we have already arranged for the Joint Australian and New Zealand
Accreditation Agency to begin accrediting Designated Audit Agencies
(DAAs) on a voluntary basis."
"New guidelines for DAAs to improve their quality and
consistency are being consulted on. These include more detailed
prescription about their practices."
"The proposed legislation will also require mandatory reporting
of significant health care incidents in rest homes as part of
serious and sentinel event reporting.
The National Government gave the aged care sector a $40 million
boost this year including more money to support and retain nursing
staff.
You can access the OAG report : 'Effectiveness of arrangements
to check the standard of services provided by rest homes' at:
www.oag.govt.nz
Related links
Effectiveness of arrangements to check the standard
of services provided by rest homes
Ministry of Justice: Supporting the management of
court workloads