It was an older but loud crowd chanting “safe aged care is a human right” outside Wellington’s Tākina venue where the Retirement Village Association (RVA) was holding a $2000-a head conference.
‘We applaud the retirees who are standing up and asking for their voices to be heard, and showing their support for nurses and caregivers.’
“Do you know how much carer time $2000 buys? Well, about 80 hours,” village resident and retired nurse Jiff Stewart told the picketers. “That’s how much — two weeks of carer work, for one conference registration fee.”
Stewart is part of a group of Wellington retirees working with unions NZNO — Tōpūtanga Taphui Kaitiaki o Aotearoa and E tū to push for changes to support safe staffing and quality aged care.
One Wellington aged-care facility, Village at the Park, owned by the Arvida Group, has proposed cuts of about 400 care hours a week — although has since agreed to keep one 40-hour shift.
‘For the time I have left I do want to be in safe hands’
But NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said several others — Bupa, Oceania, Metlife Care and Summerset — were also proposing cuts.
“We applaud the retirees who are standing up and asking for their voices to be heard, and showing their support for nurses and caregivers.”
NZNO wanted legally mandated safe staffing levels in aged care, and across the health sector, as was the case in Australia.
In a poignant kōrero, Stewart said she didn’t expect to live happily ever after these days — “glimpses of joy, perhaps, from a kind word, a gentle hand, moments of engagement.
“But, for the time I have left I do want to be in safe hands.”
See also: I want to be safe
WHAT CAN WE DO?
- Sign the petition to stop the cuts.
- Write to the Health Minister, Shane Reti ([email protected]) and Minister for Seniors, Casey Costello ([email protected]), raising your concerns.
- At election time, make sure aged-care policies and funding are on the agenda.
- If you are in care or know someone in care, report any concerns to any of the following organisations:
* Aged Care Commissioner hdc.org.nz
* Age Concern Wellington ageconcern.org.nz
* Grey Power greypower.co.nz
* Retirement Villages Residents Association NZ rvr.org.nz
Get involved with your union!
