Source: Aged Care Association
The Aged Care Association says a new report from the Koi Tū Centre for Informed Futures, highlighted in today’s New Zealand Herald, points to a challenge the sector has been raising for years but fails to reflect that the consequences are already being felt.
The report, People, Place and Prosperity: The Case for a Population Strategy, co-authored by Peter Gluckman and Paul Spoonley, warns of the impact of an ageing population, a shrinking workforce, and increasing regional pressure.
“Politicians talk about future risk. Our members are dealing with it today,” says ACA Chief Executive Tracey Martin.
“An ageing population is entirely predictable. What is not acceptable is the failure to plan for it and that failure is now showing up in some of the most vulnerable communities in the country.”
The report highlights risk to regional New Zealand from a growing elderly population and declining workforce ratios. The Association says those risks are no longer theoretical.
“In places like Wairoa and Reefton, we are already seeing what happens when aged care services cannot be sustained. Once those services are lost, communities don’t just lose beds, they lose the ability for their people to age and receive care close to home.”
The consequences are increasingly stark.
“We now have examples of older New Zealanders being moved hundreds of kilometres from their families – including cases where people requiring dementia care have been transferred from Dunedin to Nelson because that was the closest available placement.”
“That is not a system under pressure. That is a system that is failing to deliver on its most basic responsibility.”
The ACA says successive governments have known this demographic shift was coming yet have continued to rely on a funding model that assumes the sector will absorb growing demand without the investment required to sustain it.
“We keep hearing about strategies, reports, and future planning. But without immediate action on funding, workforce, and infrastructure, those conversations mean very little to the families already living this reality.”
First 100 days: What must happen now
In an election year, the Association is calling on all political parties to commit to immediate action within their first 100 days in government:
– Establish a funded aged care infrastructure pipeline to ensure beds are built where they are needed, particularly in regional New Zealand
– Reset the funding model to reflect the true cost of delivering care, including dementia and high-acuity services
– Deliver a workforce plan that aligns immigration, training, and pay settings with projected demand
– Provide immediate stabilisation support to prevent further closures in vulnerable communities
“This is no longer a question of whether we can afford to invest in aged care – it is a question of whether we are prepared to accept a system where access depends on where you live.”
“Aged care is health care. If we would not accept this level of access failure in our hospitals, we should not accept it for older New Zealanders.”
