The Alliance Party says Health New Zealand’s decision not
to renew home and community support contracts with three
Auckland non-profit providers shows what happens when
essential care is put out to competitive
tender.
Alliance Party Health Spokesperson Ethan
Gullery says the decision affects more than 1,200 support
workers employed by Visionwest, Lifewise and Presbyterian
Support Northern, which runs the Enliven service.
The
three organisations currently support around 4,500 older and
disabled people across Auckland, Counties Manukau and
Waitematā.
“These are the people who go to
someone’s home in the morning and make sure they have
showered, eaten and taken their medication,” says Mr
Gullery.
“That work is only possible because of
trust built over years. You cannot re-tender a
relationship.”
Presbyterian Support Northern chief
executive Shaun Greaves told RNZ’s Checkpoint the decision
came as a shock and that his organisation does not
understand it.
Mr Greaves told RNZ the provider
challenged the decision, and an internal review concluded
the procurement process was still valid. Mr Greaves said his
concern is that the process does not take into account
tenure of service, quality, experience, or the depth of a
provider’s relationships in the community.
Mr Gullery
says that objection goes to the heart of the
problem.
“If a procurement model cannot see twenty
years of continuous care as a value worth counting, the
model is measuring the wrong things. It is not a neutral
technical exercise. It reflects a decision about what
matters.”
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The Ministerial Advisory Group’s final
report on aged care, A Place to Grow Old: Securing the
Future of Aged Care, made 40 recommendations including
strengthening home and community support services so more
older New Zealanders can remain independent at home for
longer.
“The advice to the Government points in one
direction and this decision points in the other,” says Mr
Gullery.
The Public Service Association has called on
Health New Zealand to guarantee that every affected worker
transfers to the incoming providers on the same pay, terms
and conditions.
PSA National Secretary Fleur
Fitzsimons has said the union will not hesitate to take
legal action to secure that.
The Alliance supports
that call in full.
Mr Gullery says the wider lesson is
that competitive contracting for care produces exactly this
kind of disruption, and that no amount of process
improvement fixes it.
The Alliance Party is calling
for:
Job and continuity guarantees: Every affected
worker transferred on no less favourable terms, and every
client’s continuity of carer protected through the
transition.
An explanation to the providers and the
public: Health New Zealand should publish the basis on which
these contracts were awarded.
An end to competitive
tendering for core community care: Home support should be
publicly delivered and directly employed as part of an
integrated community health service, not re-bid every few
years between providers.
“Older New Zealanders
should not have to find out from the news whether the person
who helps them out of bed will still be there in March,”
says Mr
Gullery.
