An Auckland rest home which faced allegations of resident abuse, management incompetence and failure to meet healthcare standards has been forced to close.
Consumer NZ has obtained documents showing Ministry of Health carried out an unannounced inspection of Rathgar Court rest home in Henderson in November last year, after information from Waitemata District Health Board (DHB) that a resident had been physically and verbally abused, and was admitted to North Shore Hospital for treatment.
While the inspection did not find evidence of abuse, it identified issues with the running of the rest home, which had been taken over by new owners, Jiaping Zhao and Kai Lu, in May 2011.
Lu, who also managed the rest home, had no experience running a health facility, and there was "little clinical oversight and staff management in place to ensure resident safety", the inspection found.
Staff were unable to contact a registered nurse and rarely saw them at the facility.
The inspection also found assessments of residents were "poorly completed, if at all", and while some residents were at a high risk of falls, there were no minimisation strategies in place.
There was also no clear documentation of procedures for signing advanced directives, which set out the treatment a resident does or does not want if they become unwell, and one resident with dementia had signed his own advanced directive.
Rathgar Court was required to implement 17 changes after the inspection, but an audit in March this year found unsatisfactory progress had been made.
It found the home wasn't meeting 15 healthcare standards, and had 71 areas of partial attainment against others, and said Lu was "unable to safely manage an aged care facility in a competent fashion".
The Ministry of Health had also received another allegation of physical abuse.
The rest home was closed at the end of May and its 11 residents transferred to other facilities after the DHB determined it would not be possible for Rathgar Court to improve its care to the required standard.
NZN