Cheviot's only rest home will close this week after 20 years of operation because the owner says flawed government funding means it cannot afford to stay open.
Cheviot Rest Home is closing after 20 years. Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Graham
The Cheviot Rest Home's owner said the closure had been forced by a combination of factors, but a key one was the Ministry of Health's broken funding system for rest homes.
The rest home has 14 beds, and for most of its 20 years of operation it had been full or close to, with a waiting list at times.
For the last six months the home has only had five residents, and with the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) only paying for occupied beds, owner Sue Coleman said they could not afford to stay open.
Over the last couple of weeks the five remaining residents have been finding new homes.
One of those is 88-year-old Jill Chester, who has lived at the Cheviot Rest Home for four and a half years.
She moved to Cheviot to be closer to her son and his wife who live locally, and her daughter now also lives in the town.
"This has been my real home and they've been like family," Chester said.
"They're so good. I've loved the roses. That's been my job, as it were, to dead-head them. It is really hard (to leave)... The food is good, they've got lovely cooks. You can smell cooking at night if you get up, baking something. And as I say it's really going to be hard."
When RNZ visited only three residents remained, with two other residents having left the previous week.
Coleman said one of those residents had lived at the home for 14 years, and another had lived in Cheviot for 60 years.
"It's just awful that she can not spend her last, days, months, years, however long she's got living in the same community."
Sue Coleman is saying good bye to Cheviot Rest Home after operating it for 20 years. Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Graham
Coleman said the day she decided to shut was one of the worst days of her life, and the last six months had been hugely stressful.
It was very difficult to take on new residents during the Covid lockdown, but a bigger factor in the low numbers was the Ministry of Health's push for people to stay in their own homes longer, she said.
"They're encouraging them to stay at home for longer, putting services in the community to allow them to stay at home. And eventually, as they become more frail over the years, they may need hospital level care, but they're just cutting out that middle rest home level care."
She supported the focus on keeping people in their homes, but said there could be benefits for some to move into rest home care.
"Some people that stay at home become socially isolated, especially if they live alone. They don't take their medication correctly, they don't eat properly. So it's quite a vicious circle with poor nutrition, and not enough fluid intake."
Cheviot District nurse Faye Daly said having the Cheviot Rest Home helped people to stay in their homes longer, as it also provided respite care for people who just needed short term additional support before heading back home again.
"If we want care closer to home and we want people to stay at home until hospital level care, which they tell me is the new drift of the health system - hospital or dementia and not rest home anymore - then you know this rest home actually makes a huge difference to making that possible."
Having a rest home in a rural area like Cheviot was of huge benefit to the local community, she said.
"It works really well with having the rest home here, because they know the rest home, they know the people. So they're more likely to say yes, we'll go and have this rest, take the respite. We probably can get some respite (care) in Waikari Hospital and then otherwise try Amberley or Christchurch.
"But that's a long way from home, long way from their loved one if they are being looked after by a husband or wife at home. So it's not as likely they'll do it when they need it. They'll wait and then they'll be sicker."
Cheviot Rest Home resident Jill Chester with Albie the cat and day visitor Aileen Hills and her dog Chippy Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Graham
Coleman said she had sought help to stay open from CDHB's funding and planning team, Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health, the Minister for Seniors and local MP Stuart Smith, but to no avail.
If she had been able to get funding for three additional beds, on top of the five occupied rooms, they could have stayed open, she said.
CDHB acting executive director, planning, funding and decision support Ralph La Salle said in a statement the DHB valued the rest home's contribution to the local community.
The DHB did not decide on the funding for rest homes, he said. Instead, there is a national bed day rate negotiated annually between Aged Residential Care and Ministry of Health, he said.
The DHB had been working with the rest home owners to fund a transition plan to ensure that alternatives to the community services the rest home provided remained in the Cheviot community, such as Meals on Wheels, day support and palliative care, he said.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said responsibility for funding rest homes was devolved to district health boards in 2003 and it was the district health boards' job to ensure there were sufficient places.
The funding model for rest homes had been under review since 2018, but the pandemic had caused a delay in the evaluation of the recommendations, which included adjusting funding for smaller rest homes or those in rural areas, the spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, once the last resident has moved out, Coleman said they would have a staff lunch to laugh and reminisce. Once everyone else has gone, for the first time in 20 years, she will lock the front door on an empty building.
