You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or following us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/detail-footer.jpg.png\")
<\/p>\n
The aged care sector has been crying out for help for decades.<\/p>\n
In the face of a rapidly aging population, it\u2019s trying to prepare for a tsunami of need.<\/p>\n
But those organisations dealing with healthcare, palliative care, and other increased needs of being elderly are rarely in the same room at the same time.<\/p>\n
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello says our aged-care model is out of date, and piecemeal change isn\u2019t the solution, so she and Health Minister Simeon Brown have set up a Ministerial Advisory Group to look at how we fix it.<\/p>\n
There have been seemingly endless reports on what\u2019s wrong with the sector, including understaffing, pay and conditions, and failing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need another report to tell us what\u2019s wrong,\u201d says Tracey Martin, the chief executive of the New Zealand Aged Care Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a minimum of five of them sitting on my desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin was the NZ First minister for seniors between 2017 and 2020. Her knowledge of how the political wheels turn has been a big advantage in her new role, where for the past 18 months she\u2019s been talking to politicians of all stripes about the lack of cohesion in the sector. She welcomes Tuesday\u2019s announcement, describing the method of using a Ministerial Advisory Group under a tight time frame (reporting back by mid-next year) as \u201can interesting way of getting things done\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this shows is the ministers have taken back control of the planning for the future around aged care. So they\u2019ve taken it back from Te Whatu Ora, who\u2019s been doing a review of funding and delivery for three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also the first time that ministers, for at least a decade that I\u2019m aware of, have brought together experts from the front line of those providing aged care \u2013 both in-home care and residential care \u2013 and said to them, \u2018How would you fix it? What would the future look like? How do we get rid of some of the bureaucracy and regulation? What would you recommend?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of pumped about this really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin says Te Whatu Ora\u2019s work was very much focused from a top-down perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, their goal was to remove pressures from hospitals, which is everybody\u2019s goal. But they were designing it [as] \u2018So this is what hospitals need\u2019, and we\u2019ll just push it downwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says hopefully now solutions can be designed by those who are on the front lines.<\/p>\n
Martin believes the issues in aged care have now got traction and broad bi-partisan agreement after some myth-busting over what\u2019s really happening. She hopes the result of the Advisory Group will carry over to future governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need solutions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to go to Cabinet \u2026 and at some stage, somebody\u2019s going to have to pony up with money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Check out how to listen to and follow\u00a0The Detail\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or following us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n