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Aged Care Concerns

Tony — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:38:07 +0000

Since 2006 more than 50 finance companies have collapsed or defaulted stripping thousands of Kiwis on the verge of retirement of their savings. A concern for the Government is that these New Zealanders will not be able to pay for their aged care.
Each district health board pays for its elderly to live in residential care such as a rest home if they require it. In the Waikato, about one third of residents pay for the care themselves, one third are subsidised and the other third are paid for by the DHB and patients’ superannuation.
In Hamilton, the daily cost of age-related residential care is: rest home, $105; dementia care, $142; residential hospital, $179; psychogeriatric, $199.
This costs the region’s health board $64 million a year. The board also spent $12.29 million on in-patient assessment, transition and rehabilitation services, $16.8 million on home and community support services and $1.57 million on respite care.
Of the total $102 million, $18.3 million worth of services were provided by Health Waikato, and the balance was provided by 65 non-government organisations.
The spending was 10.3 per cent of the total Waikato DHB . The over-65 population is projected to increase by more than 16,500 people, from 52,000 people .$102 million was spent annually in the Waikato region on aged care now to almost 69,000 people in 2021.
The over-85 population would increase by more than 2000 during the same time.l

AGED CARE COST
* Older people’s services cost Waikato DHB $102 million annually
* $64 million of this covers rest homes, hospitals, and dementia facilities.
* Over-65s predicted to be one in five in 10 to 20 years.

The dilemma we as a country now face is that there is not enough money available to provide services on a continual basis for this vulnerable sector of society. At Supercare4u.com we find that being able to offer non-medical emergency transportation at an affordable price compared to traditional ambulances is a positive step for future budgets. Although we are just a small boat in the ocean!

Smoking will cost you ………

Tony — Sun, 06 May 2012 06:11:39 +0000

With all the damage that smoking causes to the Health sector ,I Question why we don’t just ban the things.If people want to smoke ,let them grow it themselves. At supercare4u.com I insist that drivers that must smoke do so outside the van and not have the smoke inside the van.Thankfully we only have one driver that does smoke and I keep working on him to quit.There is nothing like a reformed smoker to be the BOSS.
The New Zealand government is seeking to reduce the percentage of smokers in the country from 15 to 5 per cent.
Their goal is to reduce the portion of smokers in the country to 5 per cent by 2025.
At the moment, there are an estimated 650,000 smokers in New Zealand – which is about 15 per cent of its total population of 4.37 million
The government of New Zealand is considering boosting the cost of a pack of cigarettes to $100 by 2020.
The paper recommends an initial $60 price hike in 2013 and then 10 per cent every year until it hits $100.

How to jump out of a perfectly good Aeroplane !!

Tony — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:36:10 +0000

When we have daily operations with Supercare4u.com , we always strive to get clients to their appointments on time ; so to read how the New Zealand Airforce gave fifty sick or at-risk youngsters the time of their lives by leaping out of an air force Hercules yesterday,gives rise to the old joke of jumping out of an Aeroplane.
The members of CanTeen and Project K were taking part in JumpStart – a charity event giving kids with cancer “experience of being alive”.
The Hercules needed five trips to cater for all the drops. About $18,000 was raised, with the money being split between the two charities after event costs were covered.
The air force has supported JumpStart since its inception six years ago with medical and ground support . I congratulate the Airforce with the support they show.

Budget Constraints within the DHB’s

Tony — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:11:20 +0000

With the budget defecit in New Zealand ; the Government pressure for financial savings is pushing
regional health board staff to brace for job losses among nursing staff after a leaked memo and bosses acknowledging pressure on debt levels. The leaked memo at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board said 35 nursing jobs were going. Nurses in the Bay of Plenty said they were also facing cuts of about $10 million
Health Minister Tony Ryall yesterday said health boards would receive more money than ever this year. He also said there were more staff working at the health boards – although conceded the amount of work to be done continued to grow. “We are continuing to increase the budget and increase the services.”
At Auckland District Health Board, where staff are currently preparing next years budget ;the rumor is they have to save $60 million. Managers will have to find new and innovative ways of delivering services and efficiencies to make sure the board could still provide all the services it did with the money it was given.
Supercare4u.com is already finding that there are options appearing within Transport to be of assistance to the DHB’s. Our new Patient Transfer Services with stretchers is Increasingly being used as an alternative to the higher costs of the traditional ambulance. With Non Medical Emergency transfers it is logical to utilize alternative services. Supercare4u.com is such a service with staff trained in Pre Hospital Emergency Care.

Will Family Health Care Providers Be Paid

Tony — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:09:31 +0000

The New Zealand Health Ministry has a problem with court cases appealing for payments to be made to family care givers looking after their children that have a Disability.
The ministry is in the Court of Appeal this week defending its policy, which both the Human Rights Review Tribunal and the High Court have said discriminates on the basis of family status.
The ministry has appealed against the decision as the latest step of a legal challenge that has already cost the ministry $1.1 million.
Five judges at the Court of Appeal were told yesterday that it had been estimated it could cost between $17m and more than $500m if families were paid for the time they spent looking after their disabled relatives.
The ministry provides services to about 30,000 disabled people.
The families in the case now before the court have received welfare benefits, such as the domestic purposes benefit, while caring for disabled adult children, with the ministry funding outside help if it was needed.

Bus company neglects Disablity Passengers

Tony — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:20:33 +0000

Ms Samson from Waitangirua, New Zealand requires a wheelchair due to a disability. They catch wheelchair-accessible buses near their home up to four times a week for return trips into the Porirua CBD. Trouble is, many of the bus drivers are not sympathetic to their plight.
“Nine out of 10 drivers sit there and I have to get the ramp out, some of them don’t know how to use it. A few won’t even take us, saying they have schedules to keep and drive away. It’s frustrating, they’re not providing the service they should and just don’t seem to care.”

For clients experiencing difficulty with Disability Transport Services, there is a method for getting the info in front of the right people. Ring the Disability commissioner or complain to Land Transport.

How to Join the Total Mobility Scheme-Nationwide

Tony — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:01:10 +0000

The Total Mobility (TM) scheme is a national scheme that assists people with mobility impairments to enhance their community participation by accessing appropriate transport. This assistance is provided to eligible, registered individuals in the form of subsidised door-to-door transport services wherever Total Mobility transport providers operate.

In the Auckland and Wellington regions, the TM scheme offers registered individuals a 50% discount (up to a maximum subsidy of$40.00) on fares charged by contracted transport providers. To receive the discount, the individual must present their TM Photo Identification (ID) Card to the driver at the start of the trip so the correct tariff is selected for fare calculation. The individual is then required to have their TM Photo ID Card swiped at the end of the trip, and pay their 50% portion of the fare to the transport provider.

New Zealand Total Mobility Contacts:

Auckland Total Mobility Scheme Auckland Transport Agency Private Bag 92250 Auckland 1142 09 366 6400

Bay of Plenty Environment Bay of Plenty PO Box 364 Whakatane 0800 368 267

Canterbury Environment Canterbury PO Box 345 Christchurch 03 365 3828

Gisborne Gisborne District Council PO Box 747 Gisborne 06 867 2049

Hawke’s Bay Hawke’s Bay Regional Council 159 Dalton Street Private Bag 6006 Napier 06 835 9200

Manawatu/Whanganui Horizons Regional Council Private Bag 11025 Palmerston North 06 952 2800 or 0508 800 800 (freephone)

Marlborough Marlborough District Council PO Box 443 Blenheim 03 578 5249

Nelson-Tasman Nelson City Council PO Box 645 Nelson 03 546 0200

Northland Northland Regional Council Private Bag 9021 Whangarei Mail Centre Whangarei 0148 09 438 4639

Otago Otago Regional Council Private Bag Dunedin 03 474 0827

Southland Invercargill City Council Private Bag 90 104 Invercargill 03 211 1606

Taranaki Taranaki Regional Council 47 Cloten Road Private Bag 713 Stratford 4352 0800 868 662

Waikato Environment Waikato (regional council) PO Box 4010 Hamilton 07 856 7184

Wellington Wellington Regional Council PO Box 11646 Wellington 04 802 0354

West Coast West Coast Regional Council PO Box 66 Greymouth 03 768 0466