Aged care facility proposes cutting 400 hrs/wk from roster

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Village at the Park, in Berhampore, Wellington
Photo: Google Maps

Arvida, who has 35 retirement communities across New Zealand, is proposing to cut more than 400 hours a week from care workers, nurses, and activity coordinators at its Wellington Village at the Park, in Berhampore.

E Tū spokesperson Rochelle Hill said they were proposing to cut 54 hours from the roster of registered nurses and more than 350 care hours from the remaining staff.

She said the cuts would result in job losses and a cut in quality of care.

Hill said Arvida had advised them they had run a trial at five of their sites with the model they were proposing to implement at Village at the Park.

“They’re saying they can cut over 400 care hours in a week from a roster and have no reduction in safety well-being or quality of life for their residents, and we strongly disagree with that.”

She said Arvida needed to provide more information on why the cuts were necessary.

She said if cuts were necessary they wanted to work with Avida to ensure they were done in a way that did not impact residents’ care and was humane for staff.

Village at the Park director Tristan Saunders said no decisions had yet been made on any proposed changes.

“We are currently engaging with our team, the unions and our residents on some proposed changes to the way we structure our team.

“In those discussions, we have provided assurances that our proposed changes would not affect the quality and safe delivery of our care services.”

Saunders said: “We agree with E Tū and the NZNO that there are funding challenges for the aged care sector which we are having to work through.”

“We will be continuing to discuss these issues with our Village at the Park care team and management as we work through our consultation and feedback process.”

Chief Executive of the Aged Care Association Tracey Martin said the proposed changes appeared to be about “right-sizing” the business following the demands of the pandemic.

But Hill didn’t believe those demands had lessened.

On Thursday about 150 people picketed against the proposed changes outside Village at the Park.

“With fewer staff, we won’t be able to care for all of them because there won’t be enough time,” said E tū delegate and care worker Rita Narendra.

“I don’t want any resident to stay in bed until the end of the shift. I don’t want to see residents not getting up to enjoy their life as they always do. I don’t want to see any resident ringing the bell with no one attending to them. It’s very sad.”

Martin said she would be amazed if Arvida lowered their staffing to those levels.

“That behaviour is unacceptable, I don’t believe that is what Arvida is doing.”

She said the ACA would not stand for any member lowering its staffing to the point of abuse.

Meanwhile Village at the Park resident Lew Skinner said the proposed cuts had not been communicated clearly to residents.

“Residents and their relatives are dismayed they had not been clearly told by Arvida what is happening,” Skinner said.

“The two letters they’ve received had given no real information and had just confused people.”