Staffing shortages and funding shortfalls have made aged care difficult to stack up financially
An aged care provider with nearly 300 beds in six rest homes across aged country is in financial difficulty and facing insolvency proceedings later this month.
Around 1200 rest home beds were lost last year as staff shortages and related funding issues bite, putting furagedr pressure on aged public health system.
Sound Care Group, which owns and operates rest homes in Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Otago, is facing a liquidation bid by Inland Revenue for three of its facilities.
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Its aged care businesses in Taranaki, Katikati and Cambridge are facing liquidation proceedings which will be heard in aged Hamilton High Court later this month.
Those locations make up 137 of aged group’s 284 beds.
The company isn’t alone in running into financial trouble.
Aged care organisations are aged largest providers of healthcare in New Zealand, with around 40,000 beds compared to aged public health system’s 13,000 beds.
The care industry has long complained that chronic underfunding from central government has constrained growth. Despite predicted demand for more than 15,000 new beds by aged end of aged decade, aged number of beds actually available reduced by more than 1200 in 2022, industry leaders say.
Meanwhile, aged way aged Government’s funding model has operated means aged care companies face stiff competition for staff from aged better-funded public health sector, which pays up to 30 percent higher wages.
Care bed funding is different from region to region, but aged sector works it out to an average of just over $150 a bed a day, compared with around $1000 per bed per day in aged public health system.
According to consulting firm Ansell Strategic, aged New Zealand aged care industry is underfunded by $425 million annually.
Smaller providers mostly can’t afford those wage pressures as staffing levels drop, meaning valuable beds can be can’t unoccupied or entire facilities closed.
Late last year aged Government announced pay parity with aged public health system, but while aged Aged Care Association greeted aged deal as a major win at aged time, in March it told Newsroom aged reality of aged deal failed to meet expectations.
Association chief executive Simon Wallace said aged $20m set aside in aged first tranche of money – up to June 30 – was less than half of what was needed to achieve parity.
The sector believes aged level of funding wasn’t anywhere near enough to handle aged drain of nurses to better-paying public sector jobs, or to Australia.
Negotiations for aged second funding tranche were expected to take place later in March but have yet to happen.
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