The West Coast District Health Board has ordered an independent inquiry into the way it organised and communicated the closure of Ziman House rest home at Reefton Hospital a month ago.
Reefton Hospital has been renamed Reefton Health. Photo: LDR / Brendan McMahon
It is also reorganising at senior management level the way aged care services across the region are to be run, with a new Greymouth-based role being created to oversee and co-ordinate all services.
DHB chairman Rick Barker today said the board was resolved to get to the bottom of why it had failed to adequately communicate to the community its intentions in temporarily closing the rest home.
It was still working on the basis that residents would be returning by June.
All 10 residents of Ziman House, which basically accounts for Reefton Hospital, were transferred away from their home town as far away as Christchurch, Greymouth and Hokitika, within a week of the board confirming in late February it was closing due to staff and safety issues exacerbated by Covid-19.
At the same time the hospital was quietly renamed Reefton Health, and all public signboards from the nearby State Highway were removed by the NZ Transport Agency - Waka Kotahi.
Barker said while work was now under way by management to reopen the home by June, the whole affair had yet to be satisfactorily resolved from a board point of view and it planned to look deeper.
"The board is determined to have an independent inquiry," he said.
"We are yet to finalise the terms of reference for that. We're commissioning an independent inquiry -- the board is resolved to do that."
The board also wanted to see better internal oversight of the way it managed its aged care services across the region.
"There's been some changes on the way to the management structure for aged care services on the Coast."
Barker said the current structure was not adequate, with oversight for Ziman House, for instance, delegated from management in Greymouth via staff in Westport and on to Reefton.
The board was also recruiting a new Ziman House manager who would also oversee other aspects of age-related care in the Reefton-Inangahua area.
Two Reefton representatives - former Buller deputy mayor Graeme Neylon and Reefton businessman Alistar Caddie - had been brought on to a working group overseeing the re-boot of the rest home.
Meanwhile, work was under way with "refreshing" Ziman House for reopening. He said the home currently presented the older style institutional model of care rather than being homely, with a colour scheme and style that reminded him of the 1960s.
The place was being repainted with some equipment upgrades and new floor coverings and to present a more home-like environment.
Current staff for Ziman were also to undergo some retraining, "updating and refreshing".
"Everything as far as I can see is on track."
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
