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QUEENSTOWN RESTHOME SELLS

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February, 2010

The Wakatipu Home for the Elderly, attached to Lakes District Hospital, has been sold to private Auckland operators.

All six hospital-level elderly care beds at the hospital will be moved into the adjacent rest home from April 1 when the new owners take over the home from Presbyterian Support Southland.

PSS board chairman Robin Campbell said PSS had sold the lease for the 21-year-old Wakatipu Home for the Elderly to private specialty resthome providers John and Heather Rogers, who have extensive experience developing and running similar services in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

Mr Rogers said yesterday depending on demand, they would hope to increase the number of hospital-level beds at the home to as many as 10 so that some of the Wakatipu elderly who had been forced to leave the district for hospital-level care may hopefully be able to return.

The lease of the Crown-owned property had been sold for an undisclosed price, which Mr Campbell said was "satisfactory to all three parties", including the Southland District Health Board, which runs Lakes District Hospital.

Under the unconditional agreement reached, Mr Rogers planned to move the six existing Lakes District Hospital beds across to the home, expanding the resthome's services. However, he said residents and families could be assured there would be no radical changes to their day-to-day life.

The four geriatric patients at Lakes District Hospital would be guaranteed a space in the hospital-level beds at the home, he said.

"It's very, very hard to assess the number of (patients) waiting I think there will be quite a demand to come back to Queenstown," Mr Rogers said.

"We do know of people sitting around the district (in other facilities) who are out there at the moment, I'm sure they will look at returning to their home town."

The home would still only be able to offer the same "excellent level of hospital care" provided by the hospital and would not cater for dementia patients, who also had to leave the area.

"The DHB has managed the hospital beds under extreme conditions the only thing we can add is expanding the numbers a little bit and more accessibility."

Mr Campbell said PSS just did not have the capital that was required to deliver the service it wanted to deliver and that it thought the people of the Wakatipu deserved.
"If we stay we become a barrier to the entry of another operator."

The 35-bed home at present has 26 residents.
Wakatipu Concern for the Elderly founder Lorraine Cooper said she was delighted with the move, which would certainly mean a better environment for elderly patients.

Wakatipu Health Trust executive officer and trustee Maria Cole said the trust had met with Mr Rogers and was pleased there was finally some certainty over the issue and happy there would be greater flexibility.

We are hopeful his expansionary plans will come to fruition over a period of time,' Mrs Cole said.