Reefton ‘duped’ over rest home closure

The doors remain shut at Reefton's only rest home facility.

And seven months after mothballing Ziman House, Health NZ West Coast says it has nothing to add since its last statement at the end of August - the facility can not reopen due to lack of staffing.

"Nothing has changed since our last update at the end of August in regards to staffing at Ziman House," a spokesman said.

Former Buller deputy mayor and West Coast Primary Health Organisation member Graeme Neylon is a representative on the community liaison group set up following the public protest in Reefton earlier this year.

Neylon said this week he remained hopeful of better community consultation, under the Health NZ 'locality pilot'.

But the circumstances put up to justify the closure of Ziman House were also described bluntly: "They've definitely duped us, when they made the decision to close it'".

"We'd have survived. It was pretty cynical and despicable really how they went about it,"

Neylon said.

While the promised renovation of Ziman House at the old Reefton Hospital, now called Reefton Health, had progressed well, the regular updates from Health NZ to the liaison group on progress with reopening had "dwindled".

The 10 residents of the 15-bed Ziman House were forced to move in March when the former West Coast District Health Board decided in a closed meeting to "temporarily" close the facility. It would reopen by June, they promised.

Of the residents shifted to either Christchurch, Greymouth, Westport or Hokitika, at least three have since died.

None of the remaining former Reefton people would probably ever return home, he said.

The closure caused an outcry and was met with a public rally in Reefton, as some relatives learned their loved ones had already been moved before they found out.

An exasperated management and board, fronting angry Reefton residents in March, acknowledged "learnings" over their process, which had all been implemented when it became clear a community protest was about to be staged.

But Health NZ's predecessor stood by its position the facility could not operate safely, and nursing staff were needed elsewhere on the West Coast as a Covid-19 contingency.

Neylon said it was not difficult to be cynical at the continued closure.

"When we had the meeting a lot of people came up to me and said you're pushing the proverbial uphill. They've come back and said, 'we've tried to tell you'... I'm still hopeful."

The question of Ziman staff numbers deteriorating to the critical point where the board agreed it was not safe to operate remained, he said.

During the protest the board said Ziman House staff would be redeployed due to the pandemic but their positions at Reefton would be secure.

"They tried to blame the Covid, then health and safety. My understanding is only one staff member was used elsewhere," Neylon said.

The community liaison meetings had now wound back and it appeared that specific staff recruitment for Reefton was not a priority.

"The last month's meeting, we got a written report saying that they had 100 applicants and 99 were not eligible.

"They have employed nine nurses, but because there are other priorities on the Coast those nine have gone (elsewhere)."

Health NZ explained the recruitment campaign: "We have had dedicated recruitment campaigns for each of the three aged residential care (ARC) roles, including ARC registered nurses, clinical nurse manager and older persons health and disability manager.

"We have temporarily paused the clinical nurse manager campaign until there are nurses recruited into the registered nurse positions."

Neylon said calling the rest home closure "temporary" was a ruse to keep it permanently shut, despite repeated assurances by the former DHB and then Health NZ West Coast.

The Reefton community has battled on and off for 35 years to keep the hospital.

However, he acknowledged that Health NZ had come good on the promise to renovate the facility.

"The last time we went through it was looking pretty smart. That gives me some hope that people are going to use it at some stage."

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air