Google/Supplied
Waiatarua Mercy Parklands aged care home in Ellerslie, Auckland, will close in three months, with 72 residents needing to find new accommodation with hospital-level care.
Waiatarua Mercy Parklands aged care centre has said it will close at the end of January, leaving the shocked relatives of its 72 residents scrambling to find new as the Christmas holidays loom.
Families were told in September that a consultation on potential closure of the not-for-profit hospital-level care home in Auckland’s Ellerslie was under way. Mercy Parklands Ltd board chair Arthur Morris said in a letter to families that recruitment difficulties had resulted in 25 unoccupied beds and a $300,000 loss over the previous five months.
Difficulties in recruiting overseas nurses in April-May were blamed for reduced occupancy from 90-plus beds to about 70.
On Monday, residents’ families received an email from Mercy Parklands chief executive officer Ann Coughlan confirming the closure.
READ MORE:
* South Wairarapa faces losing 60 per cent of resthome beds over three years
* Nurses who work for Plunket, GPs and iwi providers walk off job for fair pay
* Mum of disabled son ‘shocked and devastated’ by closure of Laura Fergusson Trust
Coughlan wrote that alternative solutions had been sought and “extensive financial modelling” on increasing occupancy to 85 had forecast an improved result. “On this basis the operations appear sustainable into future months,” she wrote.
“Unfortunately, a breakeven situation is not acceptable to the Mercy Healthcare Board or the shareholder (Sisters of Mercy, NZ) and the decision to close is unanimous”.
.
Family members of residents of Waiatarua Mercy Parklands say they are devastated the facility will close.
Jane Sheetz, whose father is a resident , said she is devastated at the announcement.
“I couldn’t believe it, the fact that this is going to close is almost unthinkable,” said Sheetz.
“The level of care is so special, it’s almost priceless. That’s the reputation that Mercy has. My own father has improved so much, he’s sitting in a wheelchair at the dining table now whereas before he was flat on his back,” she said.
“It’s such a big thing to relocate these people. There’s really nowhere else for them to go,” she said.
Another resident’s family member said he had no idea what would happen to them now and feared they would not survive if moved to another facility.
Morris said running at break even covers costs in the short term, “but for long-term financial viability we need revenue to be able to cover all ongoing costs such as building maintenance”.
“Break even with occupancy that doesn’t provide a bottom line is not acceptable,” Morris said.
Skeetz said on hearing in September that the centre might close, families fundraised $118,000 in two weeks.
“That was a strong indication that the support of the families was there,” Skeetz said. She would like to see collaboration between funders such as Te Whatu Ora, residents’ families, and The Sisters of Mercy.
Supplied
Waiatarua Mercy Parklands Limited is part of the Sisters of Mercy Ministries New Zealand Trust Group which carries out the apostolic works for Nga Whatea Atawha o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy.
Instead of the staffing problem cited in September, Skeetz said Morris told a meeting of families last Thursday that there were issues with building maintenance.
“If you could see the building was crumbling and the care was terrible, you could say, ‘OK, let’s move on.’ But when that’s not the case it’s hard to understand the ‘why’,” Skeetz said.
“Management say they have a pipeline of registered nurses coming in from overseas and they do have a waiting list of residents. They have worked incredibly hard to rejig their existing resources to be efficient.”
Is your loved one at Waiatarua Mercy Parklands? Email [email protected]
The annual return for the Sisters of Mercy Ministries New Zealand Trust Group for the year ending March 31, 2021, shows a $9 million surplus, with revenue including $6m of donations, grants and fundraising. The trust has total assets to the value of $189m with $11.5m in cash and cash equivalents.
In a written statement, Morris said Mercy Parklands Ltd has incurred financial losses of more than $400,000 over the past six months because of reduced occupancy and “is not able to continue providing aged care services in a financially sustainable manner”.
Debbie Holdsworth, Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland’s director of funding, said the organisation will support residents and their whānau through the closure, particularly residents without whānau to help them move to other facilities.
“While Mercy Parklands has provided 12 weeks’ notification of the closure, it will continue to provide safe care to residents until the last resident has moved,” Holdsworth said.
