Staff at Te Whatu Ora incorporating karakia into their daily routine should stop he says.

Seymour is reported as saying that Te Whatu Ora must concentrate on people's physical wellbeing and leave their spiritual wellbeing to self-management or others.

Karakia for patient benefit

Act health spokesperson Todd Stephenson says some Te Whatu Ora staff including karakia in their daily routine has a flow-on effect for patients.

In his opinion it is inappropriate and distracts from Te Whatu Ora's work.

While prayer in a person's own time is fine as far as Stephenson is concerned, he says "they shouldn't be paid or encouraged to do it by a government department".

Practical approach called for

"In terms of Te Whatu Ora, the size of the problems in health demands a practical approach" Seymour says.

"Secondly ... in a public office you leave your own religion and beliefs at the door and work together for the benefit of New Zealand.

"We do not believe in forcing any particular culture. We believe in a public sphere where all people can participate on equal terms."

Karakia optional, reflection encouraged

While saying a karakia is optional at Te Whatu Ora there is organisation support for the practice.

A leaked email to Te Whatu Ora staff reads:

"We encourage everyone to incorporate karakia daily. To help ... we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn karakia .. over time we will be adding more recordings for you to choose from."

Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa says many groups chose to begin their day and meetings with karakia. But it is not a required practice she says.

She says that nonetheless Health NZ encourages reflection when teams gather. This practice aims to ensure they collaborate and are aligned in how they can make a difference for patients.

"We do much of our work in teams ... How our people connect with each other is where value is created for patients" Apa says.

"We have a range of resources in the organisation that support teams to build ways of working that recognise this - and karakia is one of those resources."

Source

• NZ Herald

Employers offer many reasons for this.

AttainAble - $2.17 an hour

Steve Drury is the general manager at AttainAble. It's a social enterprise business that runs a factory and community programme.

He says his business model wouldn't be sustainable if he paid the minimum wage.

Workers with learning disabilities pack, count and label products for contracted customers.

Drury pays them an average of $2.17 an hour.

If he had to pay the minimum wage he "couldn't offer the contracted customers the jobs at such a low price," Drury says.

Te Whatu Ora - $7.98 an hour

Woodford Gardens is funded by Te Whatu Ora Waitemata (formerly Waitemata DHB). It's been running from Waitakere Hospital since 1993.

There, Woodford has a 300-square-metre indoor hydroponics garden.

It's a place for individuals who struggle to find open employment, the promotional video on Facebook says.

They're paid an average of $7.98 an hour.

Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) also funds Wrap ‘N' Pak​, a business in operation since the 1960s.

Like Woodford Gardens, Wrap 'N' Pak pays disabled workers an average of $7.98 an hour.

Te Whatu Ora says its enterprises are a stepping stone for "vulnerable service-users who require assistance gaining the skills and confidence that will one day assist them to seek employment elsewhere".

They declined to elaborate on whether workers were assisted to seek outside employment, or whether Te Whatu Ora had plans in place for paying the minimum wage.

The exemption

The minimum wage is currently $21.20 an hour.

Companies can apply for an exemption under section 8 of the Minimum Wage Act of 1983 for employees whose disabilities "significantly" prevent them from performing at standard capacity.

As part of the exemption, employers must attempt to make reasonable accommodations for the employee.

MBIE says 167 people are currently employed under a minimum wage exemption permit.

A ‘rights-based' solution

Olivia Kelly, from AUTs law school, says business enterprises or ‘sheltered workshops' are a "historical hangover".

She'd like to see disabled people receive appropriate vocational training for employment on the open market.

Subsidies shouldn't be based on a disabled person's productivity, she says.

"That's discriminatory in itself and other employees don't get subject to that sort of stuff."

It would be relatively simple for the Government to repeal section 8 of the Minimum Wage Act, and ensure everyone was paid the minimum wage, she says. But society would have to put "an enormous amount of support" to ensure disabled people could get jobs on the open market, she says.

Government response

UN disability experts are concerned about the exemption as a breach of disability rights. They recommend the Government repeal section 8 of the Minimum Wage Act and "ensure that persons with disabilities are paid on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value".

Minister for Disability Issues Poto Williams says a wage supplement would top up wage rates for disabled employees, so they can be paid the minimum wage.

Source

• Stuff

Poverty and overcrowding are leading to life-changing health outcomes. Diseases like rheumatic fever are rife in some communities.

Yet - the annual Ministry of Social Development Child Poverty Report found child poverty in New Zealand is just slightly above the median rate in European countries.

Single parent families suffer. Ethnic disparities remain. Maori children are more than twice as likely than average to experience material hardship. For Pasifika children, this affects nearly one in three.

These children are also more likely to become severely ill with preventable diseases.

Rent and housing costs take an increasing portion of household incomes. They disproportionately impact those on lower incomes.

Housing costs for all households with children increased from 15 per cent in 1988 to 22 per cent in 2021. Meanwhile, for those in the lowest fifth, they increased from 23 per cent to 40 per cent.

The worst-hit group was those that rented privately and received the Accommodation Supplement (AS), with almost half of their household income spent on accommodation on average.

The report author, Bryan Perry, says the survey only captured those children in private dwellings. It doesn't include those in accommodation like hotels, motels, boarding houses, hostels and camping grounds.

He said there remained about 60,000 children, or five per cent, in "very severe hardship".

The Guardian newspaper article reported:

Rheumatic heart disease is a disease divided down racial lines in New Zealand - 93% of cases present in Pasifika and Maori children.

Pasifika children are admitted to hospital for rheumatic fever 140 times more often than children of European or other ethnicities.

Maori children are admitted 50 times more often.

Each year about 140 people die from rheumatic heart disease.

Roughly 160 new cases are diagnosed a year. Many go unreported.

"Anything that can be done to remove the inequitable burden of this disease on the population is of the greatest priority.
I look forward to the day that rheumatic heart disease becomes a historic rarity on these shores," David McCormack says.

"As a cardiac surgeon - I had never treated rheumatic heart disease before coming to Aotearoa New Zealand. The grievous impact it has on young lives and whanau cannot be overstated," the UK-trained specialist says.

In other countries, rheumatic heart disease is extremely rare.

Eva Colette's Guardian article describes rheumatic fever as a "deadly autoimmune disease" for which there is no cure.

"It can be painful, cause neurological effects, and can develop into irreversible rheumatic heart disease, requiring long-term drug treatment and, on occasion, heart valve surgery," she wrote.

"On many measures, New Zealand is currently one of the worst places in the developed world to be a child."

Source

• NZ Doctor
• NZ Herald

Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy labels the closure as "catastrophic."

Guppy said he attended a packed meeting of family members at the home's chapel on Wednesday night.

"It was a bolt from the blue.

"People were obviously sad and wondering what was going to happen to their loved ones," Guppy said.

"It's not a small organisation and clearly this is not about money, it's about workforce.

"Registered nurses, we need you," Guppy said.

Its closure will mark a big change for the Sisters of Compassion, who have provided service to the elderly in Upper Hutt for almost 100 years.

Chief executive Chris Gallavin said the facility had been kept open "through a wing and a prayer and Band-aids" but was unable to sustain its services in the face of the current nursing shortage.

"Our normal contingency of [nursing] staff is 15 but we've been hobbling along with five. Staff have been working double and, at times, triple shifts," Gallavin said.

"Purely and simply we don't have the nursing staff and caregivers to stay open," Gallavin said.

The closure is the result of aged care providers everywhere suffering from a nursing shortage.

St Joseph's accommodates 87 residents. It provides 16 beds for dementia care, with the rest a mix of elderly and hospital-level care.

Health Minister - Andrew Little

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation said recently our own health sector was more than 4,000 nurses short.

Problems attracting qualified staff have been ongoing since before the pandemic. says Dr Chris Gallavin, Co-Executive director of the Sisters of Compassion group.

It has been increasingly challenging to recruit and retain nurses, caregivers and support staff, he explains. The last six months have been especially difficult.

"Unfortunately, we can no longer staff our home to the levels necessary to provide the quality and safety of care that we all expect and that they deserve."

Over the last three years, Gallavin says they've been working as "innovatively and creatively as possible" to find solutions.

"We have advertised nationally and internationally, working with agencies, exploring options for staff including delaying retirement, and even trying to convince others to come out of retirement. But now we find ourselves unable to staff the centre adequately," he says.

"We are so sorry that it has come to this.

"This is not a problem we are able to fix by spending more but is a reflection of where our health system is at.

"It is a very sad day for our residents, their whanau and families, our staff and everyone in our community who have been involved in our operations over many decades.

"I appreciate this will come as a great shock and that it is a blow to the community - again, I am very sorry for that."

Te Whatu Ora (former DHB) has been supportive, providing relief staff when possible. Even so, finding the necessary staff to continue operating has not been possible.

Families will be given help to rehouse their loved ones through the local Needs Assessment and Service Coordination (NASC) organisation.

"Residents and families will not be left alone; we are here to work with them and Te Whatu Ora in their ongoing care and accommodation," Gallavin promises.

St Joseph's Home of Compassion had been in operation for more than 100 years, and the Upper Hutt rest home opened in 1933.

Source

• Scoop
• Stuff