Heritage Lifecare has been managing the facility since August 2022, which it has since purchased.

Heritage Lifecare chief executive Norah Barlow said seeing the home close would have been a shame.

"Losing this home and the vital aged care services it provides would have been a huge loss to the community.

"Now with the purchase, St Joseph's will continue to serve the community. We will be working to ensure the kaupapa of the sisters continue," Barlow says.

Sisters of Compassion Congregational leader, Sister Margaret Anne Mills is sorry about the change of ownership, but says the new owners' attitude heartens her.

The handover was the last step of a journey that hit the headlines last August when St Joseph's Home of Compassion announced its 87-bed rest home in Upper Hutt would close.

Staff levels had been dropping for three years. Two-thirds of the facility's registered nurses had resigned, they explained.

Poor salaries - $20,000 lower than peers working in hospitals - saw many registered nurses seek alternative employment.

Various immigration issues meant overseas-registered nurses weren't taking their places.

At St Joseph's, as elsewhere in New Zealand, the combined issues forced the Sisters' desperate decision to close the facility.

Last year, when word got out about St Joseph's, the Upper Hutt community, in particular, was shocked.

Mayor Wayne Guppy said the closure would be "catastrophic for the community".

Heritage Lifecare's Norah Barlow agreed. Impressed by the community's response, initially she decided to partner with Sisters to find solutions to keep St Joseph's open.

Critically, one solution was readily available. Heritage Lifecare had the resources to deal with the staff shortages.

Soaring Costs

Shortly before Christmas, the Government announced a $200 million-a-year pay-parity funding package to help registered nurses working in the community. These include those in aged-care homes.

The Government is also allowing overseas-trained nurses to join other medical professionals on the "straight to residence" pathway.

It's expected this will make New Zealand more attractive to overseas nurses.

Home of Compassion chief executive Chris Gallavin says the Sisters have 38 members with an average age in the 70s.

Gallavin says the order is no longer recruiting but remains active and plans to significantly upgrade its soup kitchen and to keep honouring the commitment made by Sister Suzanne Aubert to the people of Wellington, he said.

Source

• NZ Herald
• Stuff
• Stuff

Last month, Gallavin announced the 87-bed rest home would close.

Hearing of the closure, Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy said it was "catastrophic for the community."

His comment prompted help in the form of a partnership with another aged-care provider.

Heritage Lifecare's CEO, Norah Barlow, says Guppy's comment led her to offer to partner with the Sisters.

"So, we are working closely with the Sisters of Compassion to find solutions to keep St Joseph's operating," she says.

Gallavin is realistic about the challenges ahead.

"While there is a lot of work in front of us, the partnership provides the local community with a positive way forward," he says.

Heritage Lifecare has 42 care homes throughout New Zealand.

‘This strong local connection is something we have in common with St Joseph's," says Barlow.

She says Heritage intends to use its scale and resources to work alongside the Sisters and Te Whatu Ora to keep the rest home open for its residents and staff.

"We'll move heaven and earth as a larger company to get everything in place and ... [we] have given assurances that we will do that to all the residents and their families."

Heritage will help with recruitment and push through immigration issues.

"Our skilled care home managers and regional managers support the wellbeing of all staff, so they in turn, can support and care for our residents. That is always our prime concern - to keep our residents safe and secure in the place they call home."

Gallavin is delighted. ‘This is good news for the people of Upper Hutt and for all the families and friends of the older people in St Joseph's care, he says .

"While there is a lot of work in front of us, the partnership provides the local community with a positive way forward."

Bernadette McCabe, whose mother lives at the home, says the partnership is "fantastic news".

The biggest thing people could do now was lobby so caregivers and nurses could get into the country to ease the shortage in the elder care sector, she says.

St Joseph's has a rich history and is beloved by its community, having provided care for older people in Upper Hutt for nearly 100 years.

Until Heritage Lifecare made their offer, all this was about to change courtesy of Covid and staff shortages.

Closing the home and trying to relocate its residents away from the place they know and love seemed the only option open until now.

Source

• Stuff
• NZ Herald
• Scoop